Omicron outbreak: 4238 Covid cases, 806 in hospital

New Zealand's border full reopens at 11.59pm - but some experts have warned that comes with the risk of a new variant surging later this year. Photo / Alex Burton

There are 4238 new community cases of Covid-19, the Ministry of Health says.

There are 806 people in hospital with Covid, including 12 in intensive care.

There are now 1502 deaths that have been confirmed as either directly attributed to Covid, or with Covid as a contributing factor.

An average 19 additional deaths have been attributed to Covid each day over the past seven days to Saturday.

The total 806 Covid-19 cases in hospital are in Northland: 18; Waitematā: 88; Counties Manukau: 51; Auckland: 139; Waikato: 96; Bay of Plenty: 31; Lakes: 17; Hawke's Bay: 39; MidCentral: 52; Whanganui: 14; Taranaki: 20; Tairāwhiti: 2; Wairarapa: 6; Capital & Coast/Hutt: 36; Nelson Marlborough: 18; Canterbury/West Coast: 120; South Canterbury: 16; and Southern: 43.

The seven-day rolling average of hospitalisations is 810, up from 762 a week ago.

The average age of those in hospital is 65.

Yesterday's hospitalisation numbers have been used for Te Whatu Ora Counties Manukau and Te Whatu Ora Waikato as today's numbers were not available.

As well as the 4238 new community cases, there are 226 cases in people who have recently travelled overseas.

The seven-day rolling average of cases is now 7183, down from 8600 a week ago.

There are currently 50,258 known active cases in New Zealand.

The Ministry has also reported 23 people have died with Covid. However these 23 have not been included in the confirmed Covid death toll, as it has not been determined if Covid was to blame for their deaths.

Four of them were from Auckland, five from Waikato, three from Bay of Plenty, three from Hawke's Bay, two from Wellington region, four from Canterbury, one from West Coast and one was from Southern.

One person was in their 30s, one was in their 40s, one was in their 60s, two were in their 70s, ten were in their 80s and eight were aged over 90. Of these people, 11 were women and 12 were men.

In the past 24 hours 7928 rapid antigen test results were reported, and 2901 people got a PCR test.

Yesterday 800 people got their first booster dose and 4975 got their second. Among 5-11-year-olds, 88 got their first dose of the vaccine and 351 got their second.

Of the cases reported in the last 24 hours, 226 were reinfections, including that 60 that happened within 90 days of the person's previous infection.

Earlier today

It's expected the latest 1pm update on new cases of Covid-19 will show the current Omicron wave is continuing to wane.

But with New Zealand's borders fully reopening at midnight, experts warn new variants are likely to sneak in unchecked, risking a fresh surge of the infections later this year.

On Saturday 6232 new community cases of Covid-19 were reported, well down from mid-July when daily cases were more than 10,000.

But hospitalisation numbers remain high, with 769 people in hospital yesterday - up five on a week ago. Eighteen were in intensive care.

As of Friday, the Ministry had confirmed 1479 people had either been directly killed by Covid or it had contributed to their deaths.

On average, 18 people had died each day due to Covid over the seven days to Friday, the ministry said.

The ministry also reported yesterday another 67 people had died with Covid, stretching back to May 12.

Six of those people were in their 20s, three in their 30s, five in their 40s, four in their 50s, six in their 60s, 10 in their 70s, 22 in their 80s and 11 were aged over 90.

They were not yet part of the official death toll as the ministry hadn't determined if Covid was to blame for their deaths.

New Zealand's latest Covid wave has been smaller than it could have been and is likely to be past the peak thanks to hybrid immunity, experts say.

That immunity comes from both high vaccination rates and the recent BA.2 wave of Covid in New Zealand, which appears to have conferred some resistance to the BA.5 variant of Omicron, a group of Covid-19 experts wrote in the online platform The Conversation.

"Although immunity isn't perfect and wanes over time, those who haven't yet been infected with Omicron are the easiest targets for the virus."

They were getting harder to find as the number of Kiwis not yet infected dwindled, they said.

The latest Covid-19 wave had also passed, with hospitalisations at the lower end of forecasts.

It comes as New Zealand's borders are set to completely reopen at midnight tonight - spelling the end of restrictions that have been in place for more than two years.

But some experts have warned we can expect the reopening of borders to lead to a jump in cases, raising the risk of another big infection wave later in the year as new variants of the virus arrive.

The new analysis, published online ahead of peer review, has found a surge in cases of new variants with each step of border reopening.