The Ministry of Health will provide updated Covid-19 case numbers at 1:00 PM.
New Zealand is in the in the middle of a second wavefueled by the more portable BA.5 sub variant.
Hospitals in the top and bottom of the country are restrict visitors due to virus transmissionand there were a record number of people with Covid-19 at the hospital in Canterbury, with 155 patients hospitalized on Thursday.
The government recently announced new measures to limit access to free rapid antigen tests (RATs), masks and Covid-19 antiviral.
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On Friday, there were 7,605 new Covid-19 community cases and 799 people hospitalized with the virus, including 25 people in ICU.
The seven-day moving average of community cases on Friday was 7,618.
Simon O’Connor / Stuff
A person will be tested on Wednesday by a staff member in PPE gear in New Plymouth.
On Thursday, the ministry reported 7,627 new community cases and 827 people hospitalized with the virus, including 24 people in intensive care.
Over the past seven days, an average of 18 deaths each day have been confirmed as being attributable to the virus.
A total of 1,479 deaths have now been confirmed as attributable to Covid-19, either as an underlying cause of death or as a contributing factor.
Last week, Ministry has announced changes to how Covid-19 deaths are reported.
Instead of reporting all people who died within 28 days of a Covid-19 infection, those who died as a result of the virus, or for whom Covid-19 was a contributing factor in their death, are formally reported.
Matt Rourke/AP
Last week, the ministry announced changes to how Covid-19 deaths are reported.
While officials will continue to report additional deaths from Covid-19 in the daily updates, the focus on reporting total Covid-19 deaths will shift to cases where deaths can be wholly or partially “attributed” to the virus.
During the latest media briefing by outgoing Health Director-General Ashley Bloomfield this week, he said the number of cases was trending downward in all four regions in New Zealand.
“This finding is supported by what we see from the wastewater results and test positivity and people being hospitalized.”
Bloomfield said the most recent modeling showed a worst-case scenario previously suggested of up to 1,200 occupied hospital beds and more than 20,000 cases per day “now highly unlikely.”