Covid 19 Omicron outbreak: Pandemic modeller hopeful Omicron hospitalisations have peaked

Four new Covid deaths were reported on Sunday by the Ministry of Health. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

New Zealand has recorded a drop in daily community cases as the country gets used to no gathering restrictions on outdoor events.

Yesterday, 10,239 new community cases were recorded and four people died with Covid.

Two men and two women died with Covid-19, bringing New Zealand's total pandemic death toll to 258.

One of the people was in their 80s and three were in their 90s. One was from Auckland, two from Wellington and one from the Otago-Southland region.

On Friday, limits on outdoor gatherings were lifted following an announcement from the Government earlier in the week.

The number of people allowed to gather inside increases from 100 to 200 under the changes to the red light traffic setting.

While the number of people in hospital was slightly up on Saturday, it remained considerably lower than the peak of more than 1000 cases five days ago - which the ministry said was "encouraging".

"This reflects the decrease in hospitalisations across Auckland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty, some of the first regions to be affected by Omicron."

Meanwhile, one Covid-19 modeller is hopeful Omicron hospitalisations have peaked.

The Ministry of Health said 848 people were in hospital with the virus, including 28 in intensive care.

Covid-19 Modelling Aotearoa project leader Dion O'Neale said for this wave, the country appears to have avoided a health system "collapse" some people were worried about.

"From the data I've seen anyway it looks like we are scraping through and managed to maybe, hopefully, get past the worst of this peak without exceeding that capacity."

O'Neale said New Zealand's Covid death rate is about the international standard for an Omicron wave.

He said the numbers look to be comparable to other countries: "We're not looking outstanding in either direction for death rates.

"One thing that's a big risk for fatalities is if you start to get spread that starts to make its way through aged care and residential care facilities, that's a super high-risk situation and that's going to give you these spikes, or clumps of deaths coming together."

The 848 people in hospital are in Northland (33), North Shore (133), Middlemore (188), Auckland (144), Waikato (65), Bay of Plenty (34), Lakes (10), Tairāwhiti (3), Hawke's Bay (45), Taranaki (11), Whanganui (7), MidCentral (21), Hutt Valley (15), Capital and Coast (32), Wairarapa (4), Nelson Marlborough (17), Canterbury (53), South Canterbury (4), West Coast (1) and Southern (28).

The average age of those in hospital is 58.

In the northern region, 90 of those in hospital aren't vaccinated, 15 are only partly immunised, 149 are double vaccinated and 184 are boosted, while the vaccination status of 20 people is not known.

The ministry said almost 3.5 per cent of over-12s in the region were unvaccinated, yet they made up 17.1 per cent of those in hospital for whom vaccine status was known - making them almost five times over-represented in hospital figures.

From next Monday, Vaccine passes will no longer be required to be used, the controversial vaccine mandates in education, Police or Defence Force workers will also lift on April 4.