There are 2160 new community cases of Covid-19 in Canterbury and 136 in South Canterbury, the Ministry of Health said.
Nationally there are 20,989 new community cases today.There has also been seven more deaths, including one in the Southern district.
Today's new community cases are in Northland (765), Auckland (7,240), Waikato (1,941), Bay of Plenty (1,352), Lakes (510), Hawke’s Bay (855), MidCentral (682), Whanganui (188), Taranaki (519), Tairāwhiti (330), Wairarapa (174), Capital and Coast (1,746), Hutt Valley (1,044), Nelson Marlborough (443), Canterbury (2,160), South Canterbury (136), Southern (878), West Coast (22); Unknown (4).
The number of cases in hospital is 856, of which 601 are in the Auckland region. There are 20 people with Covid-19 in Canterbury hospitals.
There are 20 patients in ICU or HDU. The average age of those in hospital is 57.
The total number of publicly reported Covid-19 related deaths to date now stands at 98.
Of the seven deaths announced today, the ministry said one person was in their 50s, four were in their 70s, one was their 80s, and one person was in their 90s. Four were male and three were female.
The Southern district has 12 people with Covid-19 in hospital and there were 878 new community cases to report.
Twenty-three new cases have been identified at the border. The number of active community cases in New Zealand is now 209,754.
Earlier today, the Canterbury DHB reported 2174 new cases in the region over the 24-hour period up to 8am on Friday.
The CDHB said there are now 15,215 active cases in the region, including 10,202 in Christchurch, 1174 in Waimakariri and 1490 in Selwyn.
Today's Covid update was provided by Northern Region Health Coordination Centre clinical leads Dr Andrew Old, Dr Anthony Jordan and Dr Christine McIntosh.
Old announced the national case numbers, saying 7172 of the new cases are in Auckland.
"Sadly today, we are reporting a further seven deaths. Five in Auckland, one in Waikato and one in Southern. This is the highest number of daily deaths we have had in this outbreak."
Although Omicron is mild for some people, for others, it is not, he said. "Every death is a tragedy."
'Getting Covid is not inevitable'
Long Covid was a reason to remain vigilant, Old said.
Getting Covid is not inevitable and Old urged people to keep up with their health measures, including mask use. He said the numbers in Auckland gave rise for "cautious optimism".
He addressed the fact that some people were catching Covid-19 to "get it over with".
He said he had a colleague at work who did that and ended up in bed for three days.
"It's not just about you, it's about the people around you," Old said.
"There is also the unknown about long Covid."
Looking at the other variants we've had, there are some effects which should give you pause, he said.
High hospitalisations and presentations were continuing to place pressure on the hospital system across the city.
A tough winter
Old says he wished he could forecast what winter would look like but everything we could do to help minimise the spread of respiratory illness will be very important.
He expected winter to be tough, and it was expected we would have influenza, RSV and possibly some Covid.
Covid-19 vaccination programme clinical director Dr Anthony Jordan said we are fortunate to have high vaccination and booster rates which meant many people had been able to avoid hospital rates and manage their illness at home.
For those who had not yet had their booster, his message was to go and get that done.
For those that had had Covid-19, the current advice was to wait three months for your booster, he said.
Jordan says while some may have built up some immunity by getting the virus, getting the booster would definitely help further in regards to re-infection. (edited)
Boosters and five to eleven-year-olds were still progressing well across the region.
New triage tool
Primary care co-clinical lead for whānau HQ Dr Christine McIntosh said a Covid triage tool had been developed.
She stressed teams were not able to call everyone who had Covid but said it was important if you were struggling at home to call Healthline or your GP for support.
She stressed it was important people reached out if their symptoms did get worse. And to call 111 if they got severe with no delay.
Old says since March 1, 2 million RATs has been distributed through community testing sites and collection sites.
More than 500,000 RAT results had been recorded, he said.
The positivity rates for these RATs ranged from 28 per cent for supervised tests at general practice up to about 46 per cent for self-reported samples, which reflected the smaller proportion of negative test results being self-reported.
"We are delighted so many people are taking up the opportunity to manage their testing at home. However, we are hearing many people are still uncertain as to whether they have done the test correctly."
Sue French, a nurse leader who has been involved in the testing response from the outset, did a demonstration.
'Phenomenal job'
McIntosh also recognised the incredible efforts of those across the health care sector.
That was on top of these people managing things going on in their own households, McIntosh said.
"We know it's pretty tough about there. We know you are doing a phenomenal job... I just really want to recognise that it is the work of all the health sector that is contributing at the moment... across Aotearoa."
"Our whānau HQ home isolation teams... are working extremely hard to manage the large number of people with Covid-19 and their households who are in isolation."
Isolation cut down
Following the Government’s announcement on Wednesday that isolation periods would drop from 10 to seven days, we wish to provide some further information to support people if they test positive for Covid-19 or are a household contact.
If you test positive for Covid-19, you are required to isolate for 7 days. You do not need to be retested after your intial positive result. If you still have symptoms after 7 days, stay home until you feel better and then wait another 24 hrs. Most people feel better after a week but if you are getting worse please do seek help.
If you are a household contact and you have done a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) on both day 3 and 7 of the isolation period of the first Covid-19 positive person in your house, and both tests are negative, you can leave isolation on day 8 if you are well.
If you are a household contact and return a positive RATs result while isolating, you will need to isolate for a further 7 days and wait till 24 hours after you are symptom free. Other household members do not have to reset their isolation and can leave isolation on day 8, the same day as the first case can leave isolation, provided they have returned negative RATs results and are not symptomatic.
If you’re a critical worker, and you have a person in your household who has tested positive for Covid-19, you may be able to continue working if you 1) are fully vaccinated 2) you do not have symptoms and 3) you return a negative RAT before each shift or day of work. Your employer will be able to tell you if you are a critical worker and what you need to do. When not at work, you need to isolate like any other household contact as outlined above. Critical healthcare workers that are household contacts or cases have some additional exemptions. More detail can be found here.
The key message for everyone is if you feel sick, stay at home.
- NZ Herald and Otago Daily Times
