There are 2,100 new community cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand today and 15 virus-related deaths. Three deaths were reported in Canterbury.
There are 436 people in hospital with the virus, including 7 in intensive care.
Of the 15 people whose deaths were reported today: four were from Auckland region, three were from Waikato, one was from Hawke's Bay, one was from Taranaki, one was from MidCentral, two were from Wellington region, three were from Canterbury.
Of the cases 134 were in the Southern district, 243 in Canterbury and 24 in South Canterbury.
The seven-day rolling average of community case numbers today is 3733 – last Sunday, it was 4302.
The seven-day rolling average of hospitalisations today is 487 – last Sunday, it was 587.
The regional breakdown of the 436 people in hospital with Covid-19 is Northland: 16; Waitematā: 64; Counties Manukau: 38; Auckland: 55; Waikato: 68; Bay of Plenty: 17; Lakes: 10; Hawke's Bay: 19; MidCentral: 30; Whanganui: 3; Taranaki: 11; Tairawhiti: 0; Wairarapa: 2; Capital & Coast: 15; Hutt Valley: 13; Nelson Marlborough: 7; Canterbury: 41; West Coast: 3; South Canterbury: 6; Southern: 18.
It comes as new wastewater results from ESR have revealed Omicron BA.5 is now by far the most dominant Covid strain across New Zealand.
The research from the Institute of Environmental Science and Research shows BA.5, which was first identified in travellers in late April 2022, is now at 91 per cent and has overtaken the previous Omicron variant BA.2.
According to the ESR data, BA.2 now only represents three per cent of cases.
The findings also showed BA.2.75 and BA.4.6 are still very rare in New Zealand at the moment.
The results are part of the most recent Covid-19 genomics report released by the ESR in conjunction with Massey University, the University of Auckland and the University of Otago.
In the two weeks from July 30 to August 12, the ESR analysed the genome from 1394 cases.
There have been 18,000 cases tested this year.
In a post on Twitter, ESR genetics expert Professor Michael Bunce described the community genomes data as "a solid surveillance net for Aotearoa".
This month, New Zealand has seen the number of people hospitalised from Covid-19 on a slow and steady decline.
This time last month there were 797 people in hospital with Covid-19. This number crept up to 836 on July 25 before making a steady decline.
