Hawke's Bay has 700 new cases of Covid, 21 in hospital

Ashley Bloomfield confirmed there were 700 new cases in Hawke's Bay on Thursday. Photo NZME

Hawke's Bay has 700 new cases of Covid, with 21 in hospital

Nationally there were 21,015 new community cases of Covid-19, and a record 845 people in hospital including 16 in intensive care or high dependency units.

Today, the Novavax vaccine is available for New Zealanders to book after a shipment of 250,000 arrived.

It is available to those over the age of 18. It requires two doses, with a three-week gap and it has not been approved as a booster dose.

Meanwhile director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said a challenge some parents were having was reporting RAT results for their children. He acknowledged some of those who had been calling the 0800 number had experiencing delays

Test results for children 12 and under can be done online, via My Covid Record, from tomorrow, he said.

The total number of Covid deaths to date stands at 91. Each one of these deaths represents a community and a whānau that is grieving, Bloomfield said.