Covid 19 Omicron: 141 new Northland cases today

The Ministry of Health says Covid vaccinations and testing is the best way of stopping the spread of the virus, with 141 new cases reported in Northland today.

Northland's Covid 19 cases continue to fluctuate, with today's total up slightly on yesterday.

The Ministry of Health has reported 6,636 community Covid 19 cases nationally, including 141 in Northland, up from the 139 reported on Sunday.

Nationally there are 480 hospitalisations and seven deaths, with 27 people in hospital in Northland with Covid 19. There were no new deaths reported in Northland today.

Today's seven-day rolling average of case numbers is 7,553 – last Monday it was 8,355.
A second person who has travelled from overseas to New Zealand has been confirmed as having the new BA.4 variant of Omicron.

Both identified cases are currently isolating at their homes.

BA.4 has been reported in southern Africa and Europe, and in New South Wales. The arrival of this sub-variant in New Zealand is not unexpected. At this stage, the public health settings already in place to manage other Omicron variants are assessed to be appropriate for managing BA.4 and no changes are required.

These deaths take the total number of publicly reported deaths with Covid-19 to 757 and the 7-day rolling average of reported deaths is 11.

Of the people whose deaths were reported today, three were from Auckland; one from Waikato; one from Bay of Plenty; one from Wairarapa and one from Canterbury. One person was in their 40s; one in their 50s; three in their 80s and two were aged over 90. Of these people, one was a woman and six were men.

''Vaccination remains our best defence against COVID-19 and a booster, in addition to first and second doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, will give you greater immunity against Omicron and severe illness. There is a much lower risk of being hospitalised if you are up to date with your vaccinations, which, for Omicron, includes a third or booster dose if eligible,'' the Ministry of Health said.

In Northland 90.1 per cent of eligible people have had their first dose; 88 per cent their second dose and 69.4 per cent have had boosters.

For Covid testing/vaccination and RATs centre details of locations and opening hours go to:

For Covid-19 testing locations, visit https://www.northlanddhb.org.nz/.../northland-testing.../

For Covid-19 RATs collection sites, visit https://www.healthpoint.co.nz/covid-19/northland/...

For Covid-19 vaccination locations, visit https://www.northlanddhb.org.nz/.../northland.../