Covid 19 Omicron outbreak: 2318 Covid cases, nine virus-related deaths; daily updates to stop at weekends

There are 2318 new Covid community cases in New Zealand today.

Nine virus-related deaths have been reported.

Two of the fatalities were from Waikato, three were from Bay of Plenty, one was from Whanganui, two were from Canterbury, one was from Southern.

One was aged in their 50s, two in their 60s, three in their 70s, two in their 80s and one was aged over 90. Of these people, two were women and seven were men.

There have been a total of 1865 deaths confirmed as attributable to Covid.

There are 357 people in hospital with the virus, including seven in intensive care.

The locations of the hospitalised cases are: Northland (five), Waitematā (64), Counties Manukau (29), Auckland (63), Waikato (53), Bay of Plenty (12), Lakes (five), Hawke's Bay (14), MidCentral (16), Whanganui (one), Taranaki (eight), Wairarapa (seven), Capital & Coast (13), Hutt Valley (11), Nelson Marlborough (seven), Canterbury (39), West Coast (one), South Canterbury (one) and Southern (eight).

Of the 2318 community cases announced today, 170 people had recently travelled overseas.

The seven-day rolling average of cases today is 2855 – last Friday it was 3876.

Meanwhile the Ministry of Health is ending seven-day updates on Covid cases and deaths, instead reducing daily releases between Monday to Friday as infection and hospital rates in the latest Omicron wave continue to steadily fall.

The change will take effect from tomorrow.

Health officials have also said they will also no longer be providing information about the Covid-19 vaccine response in the updates.

In announcing the change the ministry said the daily 1pm update was being "fine-tuned" to reflect the level of data provided daily on the Ministry of Health website.

"The key changes are that the update will now be produced from Monday to Friday and information about the Covid-19 vaccine response, already provided on the website each day during the week, will no longer be included in the daily 1pm update," the ministry said.

The news release change follows the rate of new infections, hospitalisations and deaths continuing to markedly fall across August as the second Omicron wave continues to recede.

Yesterday, the ministry reported 2780 community cases and 336 hospitalisations, some of the lowest rates since the variant hit our shores earlier this year.

The seven-day rolling average of community case numbers is 3061, just under 1000 fewer than last Thursday, when it was 3928.

There is also a significant drop in the number of people with Covid-19 needing hospital-level care.

Yesterday the seven-day rolling average of hospitalisations was 416. Last Thursday it was 527.

There are currently six people in ICU with Covid, the lowest admission rate since the end of June.

The daily death rate has also dropped to seven a day.

There are currently 21,420 active cases in the community.

Long Covid tracking in NZ

The Ministry of Health yesterday announced long Covid will now be tracked with a new coding tool.

It said clinicians around the country were being given the tools to record people diagnosed with long Covid, to help provide a clearer picture of the impact of the condition over time.

Clinical codes had been developed for hospital-level care for patients with "ongoing symptomatic Covid-19" and "post Covid-19 syndrome".

These codes were currently being rolled out across all medical record IT systems used in primary care.

The ministry's Long Covid Expert Advisory Group had also endorsed an agreed case definition for post-Covid-19 conditions based on the UK NICE guidance and guidelines for long Covid rehabilitation.

"The guidelines will be finalised and published in the coming weeks and will support self-care for patients, whānau and carers as well as helping clinicians in diagnosing long Covid and managing the condition for patients," said the ministry.

Advisory group chairman Dr Martin Chadwick said the vast majority of people who tested positive for Covid-19 recovered within weeks and returned to normal health. But for a small group of people symptoms persisted and had a lasting effect on their health.

"Because Covid-19 is relatively new, there remains much we do not know about its long-term effects. Although it is difficult to precisely predict the likely burden of long Covid in New Zealand, given the large number of people who have had Covid-19 in Aotearoa New Zealand, it is likely to result in impacts on individuals, families and whānau quality of life and wellbeing, and the healthcare system over time."