New Covid cases total 24,068

There have been 24,068 new community Covid-19 cases reported in the past week, compared to 21,595 cases a week ago.

The Ministry of Health gave the update, covering the period from Monday, November 14, to Sunday, November 20, yesterday.

There were 344 people in hospital with the virus as of midnight on Sunday, three of whom were in an intensive care or high dependency care unit. That was up from 325 the previous Sunday.

The past week saw two of the highest single days for reported Covid-19 cases since mid-August: 4282 cases reported on Monday, and 4322 on Saturday.

The ministry also reported 40 deaths with Covid over the past week. Of these, 28 were attributed to Covid-19 (either as the underlying cause or a contributory cause). Categorisations of 11 were not yet available, with one classed as not Covid.

The week before there were 56 deaths, 35 attributed to Covid, with the remaining 21 not categorised.

Of the latest deaths, one was under 10 years old, one was in their 50s, five were in their 60s, eight in their 70s, 15 in their 80s and 10 over 90.

The total number of deaths attributed to Covid was 2182.