NZ stays at orange as hospitals feel pressure
Minister for Covid-19 Response Dr Ayesha Verrall has confirmed the country will stay at the orange traffic light setting as 5939 new community cases of Covid-19 in Aotearoa were reported by the Ministry of Health yesterday.
Verrall said there was still ‘‘significant pressure’’ on hospitals from winter illnesses, though it was thought that Covid-19 cases may have peaked about 11,000 cases per day in mid-July.
‘‘Our response to Omicron is moving in the right direction, but loosening settings before we are completely on top of it risks infections going up again,’’ she said.
‘‘We just need to stay the course a little longer.’’
Verrall said the health system was usually under elevated pressure through September, and it was hoped there would be some sustained reductions in cases and hospitalisations then.
There will be no changes to case isolation and household contact quarantine requirements, and the next review setting will be in September.
In the past seven days, an average of 16 deaths have been confirmed each day as attributable to Covid-19.
The Ministry of Health announced changes to the way it reports Covid related deaths last month, with the focus shifting to reporting cases where deaths can be wholly or partly ‘‘attributed’’ to the virus. Information on the number of new deaths of people with Covid19 reported to the Ministry of Health in the past 24 hours, and the seven-day rolling average, is available on the Ministry of Health website.
This includes information on the age band and location of newly reported deaths.
The seven-day rolling average of community case numbers today is 5120, down from 6683 last Tuesday.
The Canterbury region has the highest number of Covid-positive hospitalisations, with 97 positive patients, followed by 80 in Auckland. The seven-day rolling average of hospitalisations is 645, down from 787 last Tuesday. The average age of those in hospital is 64.
In the past 24 hours, 26 people received their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, and 21 people got their second dose.
Yesterday, 481 first booster doses and 8136 second booster doses were also delivered.
And 11 paediatric first doses and 92 paediatric second doses were delivered yesterday.