Covid 19 Omicron outbreak: 5690 cases, 10 people die with virus, 514 in hospital

Ten people have died with Covid-19 and there are 5690 new cases of the virus in the community, the Ministry of Health says.

The 10 deaths include people who have died over the past three days.

The ministry previously reported two children under 9 had died. One of those deaths has now been assessed and officials have decided Covid-19 was not a contributing factor, and their death has been removed from the tally.

Of the 10 people who have died, one was from Auckland, one from Counties Manukau, two from Waikato, one from Hawke's Bay, one from MidCentral, one from Whanganui, one from the Wairarapa, one from Canterbury and one from Southern.

One person was in their 40s, one in their 60s, two in their 70s, five in their 80s and one was over 90. Three were male and seven were female.

"This is a very sad time for whanau and friends and our thoughts and condolences are with them," the ministry said. "Out of respect we will be making no further comment."

In total 683 people have been publicly reported as dying with Covid in New Zealand. The seven-day rolling average of reported deaths is 12.

There are 514 people in hospital with Covid including 18 in intensive care.

Those in hospital are in Northland (43), Waitemata (77), Counties Manukau (71), Auckland (88), Waikato (34), Bay of Plenty (27), Lakes (4), Tairāwhiti (2), Hawke's Bay (11), Taranaki (8), Whanganui (4), MidCentral (2), Wairarapa (5), Hutt Valley (13), Capital and Coast (9), Nelson Marlborough (9), Canterbury (68), South Canterbury (6), West Coast (1) and Southern (32).

Among those in Northern Region hospitals, 17 per cent (46 cases) are unvaccinated, 3 per cent (8) are partly immunised, 28 per cent (75) are double-jabbed and 49 per cent (129) are boosted. The vaccination status of 3 per cent (8 cases) is unknown. The average age of those in hospital is 61.

The seven-day rolling average of Covid cases in the community is 8355 - up from 7986 last Monday.

The largest number of cases is in Auckland (1467) followed by Canterbury (1013). The other cases are in Northland (174), Waikato (361), Bay of Plenty (199), Lakes (95), Hawke's Bay (199), MidCentral (234), Whanganui (75), Taranaki (139), Tairāwhiti (56), Wairarapa (55), Capital and Coast (348), Hutt Valley (148), Nelson Marlborough (177), South Canterbury (112), Southern (766) and the West Coast (70), while the location of two cases is unknown.

Fifty-seven cases have also been caught at the border.

In the last 24 hours 9991 Rapid Antigen Tests have been reported. There have been 1312 PCR tests carried out - the rolling average for the last seven days is 2119.

New Zealand has now had 887,205 confirmed cases of Covid-19, of which 58,458 are classified as active.

The XE recombinant was detected in New Zealand for the first time last week. It is a mix of two earlier Omicron subvariants, BA.1 and BA.2.

A recombinant emerged when viruses swapped genetic material to create offspring, and sometimes arose if a person was infected with two strains at once.

The Ministry of Health said the person with XE arrived on April 19 and was isolating at home. It said the current health settings could manage XE.

Director general of health Ashley Bloomfield earlier this month said if XE arrived here, officials would need to look at its characteristics and assess if stricter rules were needed to keep case numbers down.

University of Auckland computational biologist Dr David Welch has said it appeared the XE subtype would not be able to outcompete BA.2.

University of Otago epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker has said that with subvariants, waning immunity and requirements being eased, a second wave may be under way here.

"This isn't Delta, it's Omicron and you need three doses of the vaccine to give you protection.

"And there's still 900,000 or more New Zealanders who haven't had the booster, which is really quite shocking."

Local vaccination rates have slowed, with only 1722 people getting vaccinated on Saturday.

TVNZ producer Connor Stirling, writing on Twitter, said his grandmother passed away on Sunday morning.

Stirling said his grandmother had tested positive for Covid-19 exactly one week earlier.

"Let's keep fighting the good fight," he added.