Covid 19 Omicron outbreak: 5836 cases today, five virus-related deaths, 403 people in hospital

There are 5836 new community cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand today.

The Ministry of Health reported a further five virus-related deaths.

Of today's reported deaths two were from the Auckland region, one was from Taranaki, one from Canterbury and one was the Southern region.

One person was aged in their 70s, three were in their 80s and one was over 90.

Of these people, three were male and two were female.

There are 403 people in hospital with the virus, including 10 in intensive care, the ministry said in today's update.

The seven-day rolling average of community case numbers is 6881 – compared with 7712 last Monday.

There are 403 people in hospital today at: Northland: 11; Waitemata: 40; Counties Manukau: 36; Auckland: 56; Waikato: 25; Bay of Plenty: 7; Lakes: 5; Tairāwhiti: 5; Hawke's Bay: 20; Taranaki: 8; Whanganui: 2; MidCentral: 12; Wairarapa: 1; Hutt Valley: 5; Capital and Coast: 39; Nelson Marlborough: 18; Canterbury: 70; South Canterbury: 13; West Coast: 0; Southern: 30.

Today's 5836 cases are in: Northland (134), Auckland (1923), Waikato (428), Bay of Plenty (192), Lakes (95), Hawke's Bay (133), MidCentral (190), Whanganui (51), Taranaki (160), Tairāwhiti (33), Wairarapa (46), Capital and Coast (525), Hutt Valley (217), Nelson Marlborough (258), Canterbury (910), South Canterbury (93), Southern (365) and West Coast (83).

There are 52 imported cases.

The total number of active Covid cases in the community is 48,153.

On Sunday, New Zealand recorded 4841 new cases of Covid-19 in the community and nine new deaths which bring the total of publicly reported deaths with Covid to 1149.

There were 383 people in hospital with the virus, including nine in intensive care.

The seven-day rolling average of community case numbers stood at 6904 – nearly 1000 fewer than at last Sunday, when it was 7863.

Most of those new community cases were in Auckland (1582), followed by Canterbury (771), Capital and Coast (405), Waikato (342), Southern (300) and Nelson Marlborough (208).

Others were reported in Bay of Plenty (124), Lakes (80), Hawke's Bay (130), MidCentral (156), Whanganui (37), Taranaki (128), Tairāwhiti (25), Wairarapa (49), Hutt Valley (173), South Canterbury (105), Southern (300) and West Coast (67).

The nine new deaths were people from all over Aotearoa.

One was from the Northland region, three were from the Auckland region, one was from Waikato, one was from Wairarapa, two were from Canterbury, and one was from South Canterbury.

While most recently sequenced cases in New Zealand continued to be of the Omicron BA.2 sub-variant, the first community case of Omicron sub-variant BA.2.12.1 was discovered in Hawke's Bay this week, health officials said.

The case, which had no clear link to the border, was from a test result returned earlier this month.