Covid-19 coronavirus: 15 virus-related deaths; 2100 new Covid cases and 436 people in hospital

A nurse taking a nose swab from a patient at the Johnsonville Medical Centre, Wellington in August last year. Photo / Mark Mitchell

There are 2100 new community cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand today and 15 virus-related deaths.

There are 436 people in hospital with the virus, including seven in intensive care.

Of the 15 people whose deaths were reported today: four were from Auckland region, three were from Waikato, one was from Hawke's Bay, one was from Taranaki, one was from MidCentral, two were from Wellington region and three were from Canterbury.

In the past seven days, there have been an average of 10 deaths confirmed each day as being attributable to Covid-19.

A total of 1824 deaths are confirmed as attributable to Covid-19, either as the underlying cause of death or as a contributing factor.

The seven-day rolling average of community case numbers today is 3733 – last Sunday, it was 4302.

The seven-day rolling average of hospitalisations today is 487 – last Sunday, it was 587. The average age of hospitalisations is 64.

The regional breakdown of the 436 people in hospital with Covid-19 is Northland: 16; Waitematā: 64; Counties Manukau: 38; Auckland: 55; Waikato: 68; Bay of Plenty: 17; Lakes: 10; Hawke's Bay: 19; MidCentral: 30; Whanganui: 3; Taranaki: 11; Tairawhiti: 0; Wairarapa: 2; Capital & Coast: 15; Hutt Valley: 13; Nelson Marlborough: 7; Canterbury: 41; West Coast: 3; South Canterbury: 6; Southern: 18.

There are 26,124 people considered active cases (cases identified in the past seven days and not yet classified as recovered).

Overall, New Zealand has now recorded 1,699,840 confirmed Covid-19 cases.

It comes as new wastewater results from ESR have revealed Omicron BA.5 is now by far the most dominant Covid strain across New Zealand.

The research from the Institute of Environmental Science and Research shows BA.5, which was first identified in travellers in late April 2022, is now at 91 per cent and has overtaken the previous Omicron variant BA.2.

According to the ESR data, BA.2 now only represents three per cent of cases.

The findings also showed BA.2.75 and BA.4.6 are still very rare in New Zealand at the moment.

The results are part of the most recent Covid-19 genomics report released by the ESR in conjunction with Massey University, the University of Auckland and the University of Otago.

In the two weeks from July 30 to August 12, the ESR analysed the genome from 1394 cases.

There have been 18,000 cases tested this year.

In a post on Twitter, ESR genetics expert Professor Michael Bunce described the community genomes data as "a solid surveillance net for Aotearoa".

This month, New Zealand has seen the number of people hospitalised from Covid-19 on a slow and steady decline.

This time last month there were 797 people in hospital with Covid-19. This number crept up to 836 on July 25 before making a steady decline.