What you need to know as NZ hits 1000 Covid-19 deaths

New Zealand yesterday recorded more than 1000 deaths in people who had Covid-19.

Prior to Omicron, New Zealand had recorded 52 Covid-19 deaths since the pandemic began. As of yesterday, the figure across the entire pandemic to date is now 1017.

Here’s a by-the-numbers breakdown of Covid deaths to date.

At least 447 people have died of Covid-19 as the underlying cause to date; 161 people, all of whom died within 28 days of being reported as a Covid-19 case, died of something unrelated to Covid-19, the Ministry of Health has revealed.

Officials today advised the process for formally coding Covid-19 deaths had been expedited, meaning the vast majority of publicly reported deaths had been assessed as to either being caused by Covid19; with the virus as a contributing factor; or being unrelated.

In addition to those definitely caused by Covid-19, and definitely not caused by Covid-19; 231 people died with the virus as a contributing cause of death.

The deaths of an additional 138 people were yet to be classified.

The Ministry of Health website states that, as of 11.59pm on Tuesday, 967 people had died within 28 days of being diagnosed with Covid-19.

The total deaths reported publicly – 1017 people – is higher than 967 because it includes deaths that occurred more than 28 days after a positive result was reported as well as Covid-19 deaths that have been reported with incomplete details.

Of the 967 reported deaths we have details for so far, more than two-thirds (661, or 68%) were Pākehā/other, 147 (15.2%) were Māori; 116 (11.9%) were Pacific people, and 41 (4.2%) were Asian.

Of the 447 deaths where Covid19 was confirmed to be the underlying cause, those aged 80-89 accounted for the highest proportion (154 deaths).

Those aged 90+ were the next most impacted (116); followed by those aged 70-79 (98); 60-69 (44) and 35 people under the age of 59.

While not broken down in the ministry’s overall reporting, we know a number of children under the age of 10, and adolescents aged between 10-19 have died in the 28 days after having Covid-19.

Most deaths with Covid-19 as the underlying cause were European/other (299), followed by 66 Māori; 61 Pacific peoples and 21

Asian. Of the 967 deaths within 28 days of a diagnosis reported by the ministry to date, 218 (22.5% – more than one in five) were not fully vaccinated at their time of death.

A further 261 (26.9%) had received both doses of Covid-19 vaccine and 488 (50.4%) had received their booster.

This high proportion of vaccinated people is not unexpected, given far more people are double vaccinated and boosted in New Zealand than have had no doses.

An analysis of Covid-19 mortality by Johns Hopkins University compared the case fatality rate and number of deaths per 100,000 people across 191 different countries. Aotearoa had reported 19.45 deaths per 100,000 people, the comparison shows, ranking us 133rd of 191 countries.

New Zealand’s case fatality ratio – the number of deaths divided by the number of confirmed cases – was 0.10% – making us one of just nine countries to record such a low number of deaths.

It comes as new Stats NZ data shows the rate at which New Zealanders died from all causes during the Covid-19 pandemic has been lower than expected.

The data, in conjunction with previous research, indicate that in 2020, the proportion of people in New Zealand that died dropped: for reasons including a reduction in accident-related deaths and closed borders ‘‘greatly’’ reducing influenza and other respiratory infections.

In 2020-21, the rate of deaths for people over 90 – among the highest risk from Covid-19 – remained the same or even lower than expected, compared with most other countries.

There has been an increase in the rate of deaths in those over 90 compared with pre-pandemic years. However, the mortality rate in the 90+ group was still lower than the average pre-pandemic peak mortality for this age group normally seen in the winter months.

Covid-19 Response Minister

Chris Hipkins and Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall said they did not wish to diminish the pain of losing a family member or friend, but that it was ‘‘welcome’’ the data showed a nothigher-than-normal death rate in the first two years of the pandemic.

If Aotearoa had a similar rate of Covid-19 mortality to the United States, there would be about 15,000 Covid-19 deaths today. Vaccination, along with border and isolation measures, had played a key role.