11 Covid deaths and 6291 new cases as NZ braces for subvariant spread

According to the Ministry of Health, there have been 11 Covid-related fatalities and 6291 new cases in the community. Among 369 persons infected at the hospital, eight are in intensive care.

In the last seven days, the number of new community cases has decreased just a smidgeon. A new record has been set at 6841 as of today. 6924 was the total on Saturday.

There have now been 1221 deaths associated with Covid-19, bringing the seven-day rolling average of deaths reported to 12 per day.

Eight women and three men were killed today, according to the latest reports. Four were in their 70s, three were in their 80s, and four were over the age of 90 when they attended.

It was split evenly between Canterbury (five), Auckland (two) and Waikato (one), as well as Nelson-Marlborough (one), and Southern (one).

Our largest city, Auckland, continues to see most new cases (1864 in total).

Northland has 178 new cases, Waikato has 508, Bay of Plenty (193), Lakes (83) Hawke's Bay (195), Midcentral (214), Whanganui (89), Taranaki (167) Tairwhiti (35) Wairarapa (45) Capital and Coast (540), Hutt Valley (246), Nelson Marlborough (275), Canterbury (1012), South Canterbury (118) Southern (461) and West Coast (1012, 118), Southern (461) and (67).

People whose origins are obscure are now becoming more common.

At the border, there have been 83 new cases.

More than 1.18 million Covid-19 cases have been confirmed in New Zealand since the pandemic began, with 47,866 people still infected.

In the community yesterday, there were 6232 new cases of Covid-19 and 6232 deaths, according to the CDC. The virus had infected 390 people, eight of whom were in critical condition.

Another four cases of Omicron subvariant BA.5 and one case of subvariant BA.4 have been reported in the community, according to the ministry.

With no clear connection to the border, these are the first cases of BA.4 and BA.5 in the community.

Every single one of these cases is based on comprehensive genome sequencing.

Whole genome sequencing of May 18 tests returned seven cases of BA.2.12.1 in the community, according to the ministry.