Seven new Covid deaths and 7043 community cases

News
Health

Author: NZ Herald ,
Publish Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2022, 12:52pm

There are seven new Covid deaths and 7043 community cases, the Ministry of Health says.

The number of people fighting Covid-19 in hospital continues to decline with the majority of severe cases are in Auckland and Christchurch.

The deaths reported today are for people who have died over the last three days. There are 468 people in hospital with the virus, including 15 in intensive care.

This is down from the highs of 1016 people in hospital on March 22 and 33 people in ICU on March 21.

The 480 people with Covid-19 in hospital are in: Northland (34), Waitematā (73), Counties Manukau (65), Auckland (101), Waikato (43), Bay of Plenty (14), Lakes (two), Hawke's Bay (nine), Taranaki (six), Whanganui (four), MidCentral (nine), Wairarapa (three), Hutt Valley (eight), Capital and Coast (six), Nelson Marlborough (seven), Canterbury (65), South Canterbury (two), West Coast (one) and the Southern region (28).

A further 14 Covid-related deaths were also reported yesterday. Of those, 11 were of people who had died over the previous seven days.

These deaths took the total number of publicly reported deaths with Covid-19 to 737. The seven-day rolling average of reported deaths is 13.

Of the deaths reported yesterday, two were from the Auckland region, one from Bay of Plenty, one from Waikato, one from Taranaki, one from Whanganui, one from MidCentral, one from the Wellington region, five from Canterbury and one from Southern.

One person was in their 50s, two in their 70s, seven in their 80s, and four were over 90.

There were 8242 new community cases of Covid-19 yesterday.

"With ongoing community transmission across the motu it is important we all remain vigilant. Please continue to follow public health advice to stay at home, away from school or work if you're feeling unwell," the ministry said.

"Another way to protect you, your whānau and friends is to get vaccinated, if you aren't already. It's free and available for everyone aged five and over.

"Vaccination remains our best defence against Covid-19 and a booster – in addition to first and second doses – gives you greater immunity against Omicron and severe illness. There's a much lower risk of being hospitalised if you're up to date with your Covid-19 vaccinations."