Hawke’s Bay: Spike in Covid-19 detected in wastewater, but reported case numbers steady

People are encouraged to continue reporting positive cases of Covid-19.

Covid-19 detected in wastewater has reached a high for 2023 in Hawke’s Bay, although reported case numbers remain relatively steady.

Health officials say Covid case numbers will fluctuate due to people’s immunity waning and the introduction of new hybrid variants.

Recent wastewater testing showed an average of 8.25 million Covid genome copies detected per person in Hawke’s Bay, which is the measurement used to detect levels of Covid-19 in wastewater.

That is a high for 2023 in the region and double the levels of Covid-19 detected in wastewater at the start of this month.

However, it is still a long way below what was detected during peaks in March and July 2022, when there were, on average, over 60m Covid genome copies detected per person in Hawke’s Bay.

A graph showing Covid detected through wastewater testing in Hawke's Bay over the past six months. There has been a spike in detections this month. Photo / Institute of Environmental Science and Research

Meanwhile, the daily average for new reported cases in Hawke’s Bay was 25 cases per day over the past week, up from 14 per day to start the month.

Despite that slight increase in reported cases, those figures are relatively steady overall, and a far cry from the start of the year when there were over 100 new cases on average each day.

The record this year for most new cases reported in Hawke’s Bay was 198 cases on January 4.

On Monday, health officials announced 7881 new reported Covid-19 cases nationally over the week to Sunday, of which 1474 were “probable” cases – that was up from 5947 and 1047 respectively on the week before. It is has been dubbed New Zealand’s fifth Covid-19 wave.

If you have Covid-19, it is recommended you self-isolate for at least five days.

Day zero is the day your symptoms started or when you tested positive, whichever came first.

Household contacts do not need to isolate but they are asked to do a rapid antigen test (Rat) every day for five days.

If you have a positive Rat, report your positive result online at mycovidrecord.health.nz.

Director of public health Dr Nick Jones reminded people at a high risk level to stay up to date with the Covid booster and, if eligible, take anti-viral medications as soon as they become ill with Covid-19.