Toi Te Ora-Public Health today reported 811 new cases in Tauranga City, 338 in Rotorua District, 241 in Western Bay of Plenty, 149 in Whakatane District, 30 in Kawerau, 17 in Ōpōtiki and 126 in Taupō.
There are currently 9192 active cases in the Bay of Plenty DHB area and 3176 in Lakes.
Toi Te Ora said with differences in reporting systems, report timeframes, and as case information was updated there may be some discrepancies in numbers such as with Ministry of Health data.
There are 22,535 new community cases in New Zealand today including 562 in hospital and 11 in ICU.
There are 16 cases in BOPDHB hospitals and six in Rotorua Hospital, the Ministry of Health reported.
Toi Te Ora Medical Officer of Health Dr Lynne Lane said at 2.45pm there were 15 people in hospital - 14 in Tauranga and one in Whakatāne Hospital.
Sharp rise in cases
The increasingly widespread use of rapid antigen tests has seen a sharp rise in positive Covid cases - and experts now expect New Zealand's Omicron peak to occur within a fortnight.
And the peak in hospitalisations will occur another two weeks after that, says the Ministry of Health, meaning the country could be on a downward slide by late March/early April.
But, according to modelling, active Covid-19 case numbers could already be as high as half a million, or one in 10 New Zealanders, with many unreported positive results and others asymptomatic.
Peak on its way
Director general of health Ashely Bloomfield said the peak in case numbers was expected over the next week or two and hospitalisations were expected to peak two weeks after that.
New Zealand's hospitalisation rate – calculated by the number of people in hospital over the number of current cases – was 3.5 per 1000 active cases, Bloomfield said.
However, the number and rate was expected to rise over the next couple of weeks as hospitalisations lagged a week to 10 days behind case numbers.
Baker said hospitalisations and intensive-care admissions were rising more slowly than case numbers. This was a key metric to observe, he explained, because it indicated a potential future burden on the health-care system and questions over whether there would be sufficient capacity to care for people.
A blog produced by Baker and University of Otago colleagues Dr Jennifer Summers and Professor Nick Wilson in early February applied the peak hospitalisation and intensive-care figures in Australia to New Zealand on a per capita basis.
Their analysis suggested peaks of 1107 people in New Zealand hospitals and 90 people in intensive care units.
Baker said at least 100 people a day, based on our current Covid-19 cases, would eventually be admitted to hospitals.
