Covid 19 Omicron outbreak: Health officials say the country has entered a 'new phase of the pandemic', case numbers expect to remain low

Health officials say the removal of Covid-19 restrictions has not caused a spike in infections and new case numbers are expected to stay at the current levels for the coming weeks.

Deputy director general and head of the Public Health Agency Dr Andrew Old said they have seen a sustained decline in daily community cases and hospitalisation rates across all regions over the past five weeks.

In a press conference in Auckland, he also said Covid-19 deaths had been consistently declining for the past seven weeks.

"Covid-19 case rates have tracked in line with expectations for the past few weeks and as expected this downward trend is starting to slow and come to a possible plateau," said Old.

Old said any impact of changes made to Covid-19 restrictions may be seen in the next week or two.

He said the country was in a strong position to go into the next phase of the pandemic, but it was important to not become complacent.

Old disagreed with President Joe Biden's remark that the pandemic is over.

"Nowhere in the world has completely eliminated Covid-19 and we expect that the pattern of new variants and repeated waves is going to continue for some time," he said.

"The virus is well a part of our lives."

Old announced that today's Covid-19 press conference would be the last as the country's cases plateaued.

"With cases and hospitalisations plateauing we have reached a new phase of the pandemic here in New Zealand."

Old also said that advice is expected to be released in the coming fortnight about whether health officials would broaden the scope of who is eligible for the second booster.

The second booster is restricted to those who are aged 50 and older, and people with health issues.

In the week between September 12 and 18, 9606 new cases of Covid-19 were reported in the community.

On average, there were 1369 new cases each day.

There were 175 people in hospital with the virus, including two in intensive care.

The seven-day rolling average of deaths attributed to Covid-19 was three and in total 1972 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic are attributed to the virus.

Figures show the community case numbers dropped significantly over the weekend.

On Saturday there were 885 new cases and on Sunday there were 1023. On Monday the figure jumped to 1820.

Last week the Ministry of Health announced it was changing the way it reported Covid-19 figures.

It moved away from daily updates and is now providing weekly updates, the first one being on Monday.

The weekly updates include seven-day averages for case numbers, deaths and hospitalisations.

Meanwhile, the Government admitted policies to support people with long Covid in their homes remains under development more than two years since the pandemic began.

It has been revealed that a young Dunedin solo parent is barely able to stand and crawls around the house because of fatigue and dizziness from long Covid.

Ministry of Health long Covid expert advisory group chairman, chief allied health professions officer Dr Martin Chadwick said a holistic approach to treatment options wasneeded for long Covid as each person will present with a range of symptoms.

"Support could include also energy conservation and fatigue management, confidence building, muscle strengthening, anxiety management, nutritional advice, speech and swallowing advice, breathing re-education, assessment for aids and adaptations and activities to support individuals to regain function."

On Thursday the ministry released long Covid guidelines for health professionals, individuals and those caring for people with long Covid.

The guidelines look at the options for care available to people with the condition and what resources are available to people to manage those symptoms.

Long Covid is a wide range of lingering symptoms that can include debilitating fatigue and aches to brain fog and depression in perhaps one in 10 Covid infections.