To date 1% of all COVID-19 cases in New Zealand have had the virus at least twice, and more than 350 reinfections have been reported in the past 24 hours, new data shows.
On Thursday, the Ministry of Health Released New Information on Covid-19 Reinfections For the first time.
Since the start of the pandemic, there have been a total of 1,403,073 confirmed cases of Covid-19, of which 14,010 were reinfections (0.99%). Of these, 9573 occurred between 29 and 90 days after a previously reported positive test result.
It comes as the number of new daily Covid-19 cases in the community surpassed 10,000 this week for the first time since late April, believed fueled by the BA.5 Omicron subvariantand therefore an increased risk of reinfection.
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BA.4 and BA.5s “superpower is reinfection” – this is because BA.1 elicits a “rather narrow” immune response that does not offer much protection against BA.4 or BA.5.
BA.5 is also more contagious and better at evading existing immunity, evidence shows.
Previously, reinfections occurring after 90 days were reported as part of the total number of cases.
Ella Bates-Hermans/Stuff
To date, there are at least 14,000 confirmed reinfections in Aotearoa, new data from the Ministry of Health shows.
Consistent with the evidence at the time, most new reports of a positive test reported 29-90 days after a previous positive Covid-19 test were not included in the case count, as the second positive result was linked to the earlier one. case – rather than being counted as a new case, advised the ministry.
As a result of these changes, Thursday’s 6,931 case numbers include additional prior cases arising from positive Covid-19 test results reported between 29 and 90 days after previous positive Covid-19 tests.
The vast majority of previously unreported reinfections have occurred since the beginning of the Omicron outbreak.
Of the 351 reinfections reported in the last 24 hours112 were reported within 29-90 days.
It follows a change in reinfection advice announced last Thursdaywhere the window was reduced from 90 days to 29 days.
Until guidance shifted, people would not need to retest or isolate if they had tested positive for Covid in the past three months.
The ministry has also released information on Covid-19 hospitalizations, unraveling where Covid-19 was an underlying or contributing factor, and distinguishing when someone with Covid may have been hospitalized for non-Covid reasons.
On Thursday, 8,490 people were hospitalized due to Covid-19, 305 of whom required intensive care.
Twenty-two percent of people hospitalized by Covid-19 (1878) spent less than 24 hours in the hospital. The median length of stay was three days.
The number of hospital admissions for people over the age of 20 who had not been vaccinated was almost six times higher than for people who had received a booster vaccination.
In front of unvaccinated people hospitalized because of Covid-19the rate at which they required IC-level support was about double the percentage of those who received a boost.
To reflect this improved information, the ministry’s focus would shift from recording hospitalizations of all people with Covid-19 – including those requiring hospital care for non-Covid reasons – to providing “more detailed data”. on hospital admissions from Covid-19, it said in a statement.