23 Jun 2022

Covid-19 update: 12 further deaths and 5285 new community cases

1:26 pm on 23 June 2022

Another 12 people with Covid-19 have died and there are 5285 new community cases to report today, the Ministry of Health says.

Omicron variant. Covid-19. Coronavirus. Pandemic. Generic.

Photo: 123RF

In a statement, the ministry said there were also 300 people in hospital, with five in ICU.

On the deaths being reported today, the ministry said four were from Northland, one was from the Auckland region, one was from Bay of Plenty, two were from Taranaki, one was from MidCentral, one was from the Wellington region, one was from Canterbury and one was from Southern.

Two people were in their 50s, seven were in their 80s and three were aged over 90.

The ministry also said that 31 previously reported deaths have been re-classified as unrelated to Covid-19.

"These deaths occurred more than 28 days after these people were reported as Covid-19 cases and were initially thought to be Covid-19 related, however their formal cause of death classification has been deemed as unrelated to Covid-19."

That brings the new total of publicly reported Covid-19 deaths to 1431.

The new community Covid-19 cases today were in Northland (143), Auckland (1,596), Waikato (298), Bay of Plenty (175), Lakes (63), Hawke's Bay (142), MidCentral (148), Whanganui (57), Taranaki (158), Tairāwhiti (37), Wairarapa (45), Capital and Coast (512), Hutt Valley (225), Nelson Marlborough (199), Canterbury (936), South Canterbury (74), Southern (426), West Coast (48) and the location of three was unknown.

There were also 106 new cases at the border.

The seven-day rolling average of community case numbers is 4817 - last Thursday it was 5451.

In today's update, the ministry said the rate of hospitalisations due to Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) has been increasing for the last six weeks and is higher than previous years for this time of year, with approximately nine hospitalisations per 100,000 people.

"ESR advise that it is too early in the season to tell whether the current levels of hospitalisations indicate an early start to the season or the start of a season with particularly high activity."

Among the hospitalised SARI cases in Auckland where detailed data was available, influenza was the most commonly detected virus in the week ending 19 June, the ministry said.

It reminded people who hadn't yet had their flu vaccine this year to get vaccinated as soon as they could.

Meanwhile, winter illnesses and Covid-19 are continuing to put pressure on hospitals with Southland DHB the latest to offer patients vouchers for GP clinics to divert them from the hospital emergency department.

Hospitals in the Wellington region and Counties Manukau DHB have taken similar measures.

On the Matariki long weekend, the ministry was reminding people that if they were going away to have plans in place in the event they contract Covid-19 or were identified as a household contact of a case.

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