Covid-19 Omicron update: Sixty-nine new case in Whanganui DHB region; no hospitalisations

The Whanganui DHB region is at 90.4 per cent fully vaccinated against Covid-19 among those aged 12 and above. Photo / Bevan Conley

The Ministry of Health announced 69 new cases of Covid-19 in the Whanganui DHB region on Sunday.

That brings the total number of active cases in the region to 628, with 12236 recovered.

There were no people in hospital locally.

An additional 80 cases were reported on Saturday.

Nationally, there were 5647 new community cases on Sunday, with 350 hospitalisations (17 in ICU) and three deaths, the ministry said.

That takes the total number of publicly reported deaths with Covid-19 to 860 since the pandemic began.

The ministry said a person who arrived in New Zealand from South Africa on April 26 had been confirmed as having the BA.5 variant of Omicron.

This is the first known detection of the variant in New Zealand.

As of May 8, the DHB region sat at 90.4 per cent fully vaccinated against Covid-19 among those aged 12 and above.

Boosters had been administered to 71.2 per cent of those eligible.