The daily number of new community cases has dropped slightly today to 21,015 cases, but the number of people in hospital with Covid-19 continues to soar, rising to 773 today.
While the Ministry of Health initially said there were 845 people in hospital, it revised that number late this afternoon down to 773, due to "data issues".
The hospitalisation counts for some regions were incorrectly reported, affecting the overall number for cases in hospital and also hospitalisation numbers for Northland, Auckland and Counties Manukau DHBs, it said.
The data for average age and vaccination status reflected is from a different source than the hospitalisation counts and there are no changes to this data.
The correct figures for cases in hospital are: total number 773: Northland: 8; Auckland 158; Waitematā 154; Counties Manukau 195; Waikato: 71; BOP: 23; Lakes: 9; Tairāwhiti: 4, Hawke’s Bay: 21; Taranaki: 10; MidCentral: 17; Whanganui: 3; Hutt Valley: 17; Capital & Coast: 46; Nelson Marlborough: 4; Canterbury: 18; Timaru: 2; Southern: 13.
The average age of current hospitalisations is 54.
There are 16 people are in intensive care. There was also one new death reported today.
There are now more people in hospital with Covid-19 than at any other point over the past two years, the Ministry said.
"DHBs have been planning and preparing for managing Covid-19 and the higher number of cases in the community which are resulting in more people in hospital. Our hospitals and their dedicated teams are continuing to do what's needed to make sure everyone gets the treatment they need."
The number of new cases in Auckland remains relatively stable at 7234 today, with the remaining cases in the Northland (689), Waikato (2016), Bay of Plenty (1392), Lakes (632), Hawke's Bay (700), MidCentral (653), Whanganui (156), Taranaki (524), Tairāwhiti (353), Wairarapa (170), Capital and Coast (1858), Hutt Valley (1103), Nelson Marlborough (449), Canterbury (2021), South Canterbury (109), Southern (918) and West Coast (26).
There were also 15 cases identified at the border today.
The number of deaths related to the virus reached 91, with Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield revealing a change to the way officials will report Covid-linked fatalities.
Nine previously unannounced deaths were reported as a result - including that of a Kiwi older than 100.
The majority of today's hospitalisations were there because of Covid, he said.
Bloomfield said it was hard to tell in real time those that were there because of Covid or had Covid alongside other care needs.
Some Covid cases would be found at hospitals incidentally.
Bloomfield said many people are just in hospital overnight or for two nights. The rate of hospitalisations, in relation to the modelling, wasn't a surprise, he said.
He said the case numbers in Auckland had appeared to have plateaued and we would know in a few days if they had peaked.
Vaccine mandates 'justified'
On vaccine mandates, and whether they were justified, Bloomfield said they were in place and like all the broader public health measures, such as mask requirements in certain settings, mandates were being looked at "as part of the overall package of things".
He said we had relatively high booster rates and there was no doubt mandates and the vaccine certificates had played a role in getting high vaccination rates.
On the critical worker shortages, he said there were a number of measures in place to ease the pressure of workforces, including non-health settings and health settings.
He said the number of people who were unvaccinated and unable to work in those roles was low, he said in response to a question if he would consider allowing non-vaccinated people to go to work in critical workforces.
GPs under pressure
Dr Samantha Murton, of Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners, said there had been a substantial increase in the volume of work for GPs.
Murton said GP members had reported being abused, yelled out, had things throwed at them and at her practice personally she had put up a sign up saying they respected their staff and hoped visitors and patients there did to.
Some practices had put up security guards or had locked their doors so people couldn't just walk in.
She said a huge amount of work has been put on GP.
"We recognise the people who had been physically generally well and vaccinated and boosted were able to manage it from home," she said.
If everyone was calling GP, there would be a lot of work, she said.
GPs were working very hard and doing the best the could for their patients and although they were prepared it could be a bit messy, she said.
There were also issues around isolation and needing supporting, and sometimes they sought this from the GPs and that was OK, but added to the workload, she explained.
Her colleagues had suggested people be kind to their practices. "Please have a bit a of patience as patients and be kind to the staff."
RAT results for kids
A challenge parents were having was reporting RAT results for their children and he acknowledged those that had been calling the 0800 number and experiencing delays, Bloomfield said.
Capacity in the 0800 222 478 number had been increased, he said.
Test results for children 12 and under can be done online, via My Covid Record, from tomorrow, he said.
He thanks everyone who had logged their RAT result so far.
A way to get around the lower sensitivity of RATs was to do them repeatedly and that's why people were provided with more than one test.
Repeating the RATs every two or three days was enough, he said.
Responding to a question based on reports of issues logging into My Covid Record and the reporting of RATs, he said there was an indication there was a 40 per cent positivity rate of RATs being recorded. The good thing was there was a lot of people testing and recording their positive result.
He said health authorities would start to look at the reported RATs positivity rate per DHB region
He said from tomorrow parents and caregivers would be able to report their children's results online.
On the number of children being vaccinated, which hasn't increased a lot in the last weeks, he said they were still seeing steady progress.
Bloomfield said the Delta variant was last detected in mid February via sequencing.
"Although we haven't got any hospital admissions with the Delta variant, we do know it's still out there in the community."
Today's cases
The new community cases across New Zealand are Northland (689), Auckland (7,234), Waikato (2,016), Bay of Plenty (1,392), Lakes (632), Hawke's Bay (700), MidCentral (653), Whanganui (156), Taranaki (524), Tairāwhiti (353), Wairarapa (170), Capital and Coast (1,858), Hutt Valley (1,103), Nelson Marlborough (449), Canterbury (2,021), South Canterbury (109), Southern (918), West Coast (26) and Unknown (12).
Bloomfield said the rest of the country was still some way of from peaking and that areas would peak at different times.
He said they would be watching case numbers closely in the next few days, and should get an indication of whether Auckland has reached its peak number of cases.
About 40 percent of people turning up to emergency departments were testing positive for Covid-19, but again some would be seeking care for the virus and others for separate reasons.
Bloomfield said they were working to compile data on whether people were going to hospital because of how ill they were from Covid-19 or if they had simply tested positive while admitted.
Covid deaths
There are nine further deaths related to Covid-19 which previously hadn't been announced.
One death announced in Bay of Plenty yesterday was subsequently found not to be Covid related, so the total number of deaths publicly reported to date is 91.
Of the nine deaths reported today, one occurred yesterday in North Shore Hospital. The remaining eight all died in the past fortnight: four in late February and four in March.
Seven were in Auckland and one in Waikato.
One was in their 60s; three in their 70s; two in their 80s; one in their 90s and one was over 100.
The total announced today was due to changes to the reporting of Covid-related deaths, Bloomfield said.
From today, there would be a dual reporting approach.
They will report different categories:
• Number of people who died within 28 days of positive Covid-19 test;
• Number of people whose official cause of death was determined as Covid;
• Number of people where Covid was contributing factor, but not the cause;
• People who died within 28 days of positive Covid test, but cause has yet to be determined.
New Zealand's death toll remained low compared to international comparisons, he said.
People who got Covid here were getting the right level of care they needed, he said.
- NZ Herald and RNZ
