There are 18,423 new Covid-19 community cases today, including 1459 in the South, and 11 new deaths to report.
In a statement this afternoon, the Ministry of Health said 913 people are in hospitals throughout the country today, including 22 in the Southern DHB area.
Twenty-eight people are in intensive care units.
The total total number of publicly reported deaths is now 221 and the seven-day rolling average of reported deaths to 10.
Of the 11 deaths, two people are from the Auckland region, two from Bay of Plenty, six from Waikato and one from the Wellington region. Six were men and five were women.
Cases in hospital - Northland: 22; North Shore: 148; Middlemore: 207; Auckland: 159; Waikato: 82; Bay of Plenty: 39; Lakes: 16; Tairāwhiti: 4, Hawke’s Bay: 40; Taranaki: 16; Whanganui: 3; MidCentral: 23; Hutt Valley: 17; Capital and Coast: 43; Wairarapa: 7; Nelson Marlborough: 11; Canterbury: 51; South Canterbury: 3; Southern: 22
Location of new community cases (PCR & RAT): Northland (674), Auckland (3,629), Waikato (1,643), Bay of Plenty (987), Lakes (483), Hawke’s Bay (1,055), MidCentral (876), Whanganui (313), Taranaki (655), Tairāwhiti (326), Wairarapa (249), Capital and Coast (1,200), Hutt Valley (627), Nelson Marlborough (709), Canterbury (3,150), South Canterbury (319), Southern (1459), West Coast (57); Unknown (12).
There were 44 new cases identified at the border.
Director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield today gave an update on the latest case numbers and the response to the Omicron outbreak, saying today's case numbers were quite a drop from yesterday and passed on his condolences to families and whānau of the latest Covid-related deaths.
The Ministry urged people to continue to get vaccinated against Covid-19.
Bloomfield said two years ago yesterday, New Zealand announced its first cases of community transmission which triggered alert level lockdowns. Two years on, he thanked Kiwis for playing their part over that time, including staying home, getting vaccinated, scanning in, wearing masks and maintaining physical distances.
Focus on Māori
There are now 118,631 active Covid cases in the community, with Māori having the highest rate at 35 cases per 1000 people. That is followed by the Pacific rate, which is 28 per 1000. Pacific was once the highest but that had now dropped, Bloomfield said.
He said if New Zealanders keep doing the basics well, they can continue to protect the most vulnerable people, including elderly, Māori and Pacific peoples, disabled and immunocompromised.
Bloomfield was joined by Deputy director-general of Māori Health John Whaanga, who told media the Covid-19 Māori Protection plan was released last December and the plan focused on two key outcomes which were central to their work.
Those were increasing vaccination rates for Māori and building the resilience of Māori health providers to be able to respond to Covid-19. He added the implementation of the plan is well under way.
He thanked each one of their iwi partners and Māori health providers - "Thank you for your continued commitment to the protection of Aotearoa. You have been central to our response since the first outbreak...please know the work you do is recognised, valued and crucial."
He said there had been sprint events and drive through vaccination events in New Zealand while several clinics had been held in rural communities to increase vaccination uptake.
So far, 54 hubs have been set up and the majority were Māori-integrated and many were Māori-led. These provided kai packs and financial assistance via MSD.
On reports resources weren't hitting the ground especially in rural areas, Whaanga said there were still pockets of the country where they needed to do better.
"We do recognise there are parts of the country they still needed to work, including both rural and urban areas,"
However, he acknowledged if you looked at the range of services related to Covid, it was a huge improvement on where we were two years ago.
- NZ Herald and ODT Online
