Covid 19 Omicron outbreak: Latest case numbers as WHO estimates up to 15 million killed globally

There have now been almost a million cases of Covid in New Zealand since the pandemic started more than two years ago.

Almost a million cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in New Zealand since the pandemic began - equal to a fifth of the country's population.

There are 12 Covid-related deaths and 6745 new community cases today, the Ministry of Health says.

There are 339 people in hospital with the virus, including 15 in intensive care.

The latest figures also show the seven-day rolling average of community cases has risen by about 100.

Last Saturday it was 7415. Today it is 7512.

The locations of new community cases today are: Northland (174), Auckland (2115), Waikato (394), Bay of Plenty (197), Lakes (113), Hawke's Bay (208), MidCentral (260), Whanganui (80), Taranaki (156), Tairāwhiti (60), Wairarapa (84), Capital and Coast (461), Hutt Valley (195), Nelson Marlborough (233), Canterbury (1177), South Canterbury (95), Southern (690), West Coast (52), unknown (1).

The deaths reported today include people who have died over the last two days and take the total number of publicly reported deaths of people with Covid-19 to 857.

The seven-day rolling average of reported deaths is 16.

One of those included in today's new reported deaths was aged in their 40s and one in their 60s. Two were in their 70s and four each were in their 80s or aged over 90.

Seven were women and five were men. Three each were from Auckland and Canterbury and two each were from Waikato and the Greater Wellington area.

The MidCentral and Southern district health board areas each reported two deaths.

Today's figures come as a new World Health Organisation (WHO) report estimates nearly 15 million people have been killed either by coronavirus or its impact on overwhelmed health systems in the past two years, more than double the official death toll of 6 million, news Agency AP reported.

Most of the fatalities were in Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas.

The ministry again reminded those due for any of the Covid-19 vaccinations to get them as soon as possible.

"Vaccination remains our best defence against Covid-19 and getting boosted is an important way people can protect themselves, their whānau and their friends from the virus."

Vaccinations have slowed to a trickle with just 31 first, 54 second, 29 third primary and 1187 booster doses given yesterday.

For children aged 5 to 11, there were 56 first doses given and 444 second doses.

Double-dose vaccination rates for those aged over 12 are 95.2 per cent, with 70.9 per cent of those eligible having received their booster.

Northland has the lowest vaccination rates for those aged 12-plus, at 88.1 per cent double-vaccinated and 67.5 per cent of those eligible boosted. It is the only district health board area not to have at least 90 per cent of the 12-plus population double-dosed.

For 5s to 11s nationally, 54.4 per cent have had one dose and 24.2 per cent have had two.

Māori rates lag for both children and adults, with 88.3 per cent of Māori aged over 12 double-dosed and 54.3 per cent of those eligible boosted. Just over 35 per cent of tamariki Māori aged 5-11 have had a first Covid-19 vaccination, and 11.4 per cent have had two.

Across the country, 52,567 people are considered active Covid-19 cases, with almost a million - 980,573 - cases of Covid-19 confirmed in New Zealand since the pandemic began.

There were 93 new cases identified at the border today.

Most of those in hospital today are in the district health board areas of our largest city, with 40 in Waitematā, 38 in Counties Manukau and 63 in Auckland.

The other hospitalisations are Northland: 8, Waikato: 34, Bay of Plenty: 21, Lakes: 3, Tairāwhiti: 0, Taranaki: 5, Whanganui: 1, MidCentral: 13, Wairarapa: 0, Hutt Valley: 3, Capital and Coast: 10, Nelson Marlborough: 7, Canterbury: 56, South Canterbury: 4, West Coast: 1, Southern: 17.

The hospitalisation number for Hawke's Bay District Health Board area was not updated today. There were 15 people with Covid-19 in hospital in Hawke's Bay yesterday.

Meanwhile, the new WHO estimate of global deaths due to Covid was described as "sobering" by the organisation's chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

It should encourage countries to invest more to deal with future emergencies, he said.

In the WHO report, scientists estimated that between January 2020 and the end of last year between 13.3 million and 16.6 million deaths were either caused directly by the coronavirus or somehow attributed to the pandemic's impact on health systems.

That included instances such as people with cancer being unable to seek treatment because hospitals were full of Covid patients.

The figures are based on country-reported data and statistical modelling, AP said.

However, only about half of the world's countries provided information.

WHO said it wasn't yet able to break down the figures to distinguish between direct deaths from Covid-19 and others caused by the pandemic, but said a future project examining death certificates would probe this.

"This may seem like just a bean-counting exercise, but having these WHO numbers is so critical to understanding how we should combat future pandemics and continue to respond to this one," said Albert Ko, an infectious diseases specialist at the Yale School of Public Health who was not linked to the WHO research.

For example, Ko said, South Korea's decision to invest heavily in public health after it suffered a severe outbreak of the Mers virus allowed it to endure Covid-19 so far with a per-capita death rate around a 20th of that of the US.