Māori currently have the highest rate of community cases of Covid-19 and while case numbers are dropping, the number of Māori in hospital continues to rise.
Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield and Deputy Director-General of Māori Health John Whaanga gave today's update on the Covid-19 situation in Aotearoa.
Watch it here:
Dr Bloomfield's latest update comes a day after the government announced sweeping changes to its public health protection measures.
Dr Bloomfield was confident at his last briefing two days ago that the Omicron outbreak had peaked in Auckland, and case numbers are also slowing in other parts of the country.
He said today that analysis confirmed the significant drop of cases across Tāmaki Makaurau and all three DHB areas, accompanied now by a drop in hospitalisation case numbers.
In the seven days to 20 March, there were 24 new cases per 1000 in the country, compared with 27 per 1000 the week before, Dr Bloomfield said. Tairāwhiti DHB (with 44 per 1000) and Hawke's Bay DHB (with 38 per 1000) have the highest rates at the moment, he said.
There there were 913 people in hospital with the coronavirus, down from 960 yesterday, with 18,423 new community cases reported today.
Dr Bloomfield said Māori have the highest rate of community cases of Covid-19, overtaking Pacific people at 28 per 1000. Rates for NZ European and Asian ethic groups is 21 per 1000.
Dr Bloomfield said there has been a decrease in the number of cases reported nationally for Māori for the week to 20 March - there were just over 27,000 cases as opposed to 30,500 cases the week prior.
However, he said despite that drop in case numbers there has been an increase in the number of Māori who were hospitalised - there was 232 in that week to the 20 March, compared with 202 the week prior.
"We always see this lag in hospitalisations behind case numbers."
In terms of actual case rates for Māori they are highest in Tairāwhiti - around 112 per 1000, next highest is Hutt Valley DHB, followed by Hawke's Bay and Bay of Plenty.
Most other DHBs in the country at the moment, case numbers are showing an increase for Māori, particularly in rural areas, Dr Bloomfield said.
Deputy Director-General of Māori Health John Whaanga said last December the Māori Covid-19 protection plan was released. He said it focused on two key outcomes firstly, protecting Māori communities by increasing vaccination coverage and secondly, building the resilience of Māori health providers and whānau so they're able to respond to the new environment created by Covid-19 and its long tail. Implementation of the plan is well under way, he said.
For the Māori vaccination rollout, he said they were continuing to work closely with Māori health providers, DHBs and iwi to increase vaccination coverage, especially among tamariki.
He said they were also looking into vaccine hesitancy and have rolled out a 'boost your whānau' campaign - this has replaced the Big Boost campaign with more holistic messaging.
He said nearly $27 million has been allocated under the recent Māori and Pacific Omicron response package.
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