21 Jul 2022

Covid-19 update: 9953 new community cases, 767 in hospital and 32 further deaths

1:19 pm on 21 July 2022

Another 9953 new cases of Covid-19 have been reported in New Zealand today, along with 32 further deaths.

The test result for COVID-19 is positive, infected, using rapid testing equipment. Test for coronavirus on the hand black background. Copy space. Coronavirus Disease infection. Two strips on the dough

Photo: 123rf.com

In a statement, the Ministry of Health said there were 767 cases in hospital, including 20 people in intensive care.

It said the seven-day rolling average of community case numbers today was 9161.

Of deaths being reported today, Seven were from Northland; five were from the Auckland region, one was from from Waikato, three were from Bay of Plenty, one was from Lakes, one was from Tairāwhiti, one was from Hawke's Bay, two were from Taranaki, one was from Wellington region, two were from Nelson Marlborough, two were from Canterbury and six were from Southern.

Two were in their 60s, six were in their 70s, 11 were in their 80s and 13 were aged over 90.

That takes the total number of publicly reported deaths with Covid-19 to 1927 and the seven-day rolling average of reported deaths is 25.

Eight deaths formally listed in the overall tally have today been removed after being assessed as not dying from Covid, the ministry said.

There were also 383 Covid-19 cases reported at the border.

Yesterday, the Ministry of Health reported the deaths of 34 people with Covid-19, along with another 10,320 new cases.

New Zealand and Australia are facing new waves of Omicron as the more transmissible variants BA.4 and BA.5 increase in prevalence.

The new strains are better at evading immunity, and promise to increase reinfection rates and increase the burden of long Covid.

From tomorrow the Ministry of Health will be changing the way that it reports Covid-19 hospitalisations and deaths.

In terms of hospitalisations, the ministry will separate out whether the main reason they were in hospital was due to Covid-19 or if Covid-19 was a contributing factor.

The ministry will be making a similar change to reporting deaths, away from all people who have died within 28 days of a Covid-19 infection to people who have died because of a Covid-19 infection or where it was a contributing factor.

Dr Ashley Bloomfield will also be stepping down from his role as Director-General of Health from the end of this month with Diana Sarfati named as acting Director-General of Health.

However, Bloomfield said that Dr Andrew Old, who has taken on the role of Deputy Director-General in charge of the new health agency, will be fronting the Covid-19 media briefings on behalf of the ministry from next week on.

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