New Covid cases in top of the south fall slightly

New cases of Covid-19 in the top of the south have dipped slightly again, with 317 reported by the Ministry of Health yesterday.

This was down from the 368 cases in Nelson-Marlborough announced by the ministry on Thursday.

Nationally on Friday, there were 9390 new cases of the virus and 522 people in hospital, including 15 in intensive care units, the ministry said.

Eleven of the hospitalisations were in Nelson-Marlborough, up from the nine who were in hospital in the region on Thursday.

Yesterday the ministry also reported the deaths of a further 13 people with Covid-19 around the country, with the deaths occurring in the past seven days. None were in Nelson-Marlborough.

Of those who died, four were male and nine were female. One was aged between 10 and 19, five were in their 70s, six were in their 80s, and one was aged over 90. Six were from the Auckland region, two were from Canterbury, and there was one each from Northland, Waikato, the Lakes district, Whanganui, and the Wellington region.

Nelson-Marlborough Health, which has slightly different figures from the ministry because of different reporting times, recorded 377 new cases on Thursday, which were among 2897 active cases.

The new cases included 100 in Nelson, 90 in Richmond, 45 in Motueka/Moutere, eight in Golden Bay, 13 in other parts of Tasman District, 91 in Blenheim, five from Picton, and 17 in other parts of Marlborough.

Nine people have also died in Nelson-Marlborough with the Omicron variant of the virus since the outbreak began in late January, with the latest death announced earlier this week.