Covid 19 Omicron update: 73 new community cases in Whanganui region

Te Rito, Whanganui's main vaccination clinic, is located at 133 Wicksteed St. Photo / Bevan Conley

The Ministry of Health has announced 73 new cases of Covid-19 in the Whanganui DHB region today, bringing the total number of active cases to 519.

There are no cases in hospital.

Newly confirmed cases were in Whanganui, Ruapehu and Rangitīkei, the Whanganui DHB said in a statement.

"We have had 15,016 cases in the Whanganui region to date."

Since Thursday, the region had 55 recovered cases.

The DHB said there were are 35 new confirmed cases in South Taranaki (border is Patea River), with a current total of 274 active cases.

Since Thursday, South Taranaki had 35 recovered cases.

Nationally, there were 6232 new community cases on Friday and 390 current hospitalisations, the ministry said.

There were a further 14 deaths with Covid-19.

"Two people were in their 60s; three in 70s; three in their 80s and six were aged over 90."

Four cases of the Omicron subvariant BA.5 and one case of the subvariant BA.4 are in the community, all based on whole-genome sequencing of tests.

"These are the first BA.4 and BA.5 cases reported in the community, with no clear link to the border."

The ministry says its daily reported cases may differ slightly from those reported at a DHB or local public health unit level.

This is because of different reporting cut-off times and the assignment of cases between regions, for example when a case is tested outside their region of residence.