Whanganui has the highest per 100,000 case numbers of any region in the country. Photo / Bevan Conley
Whanganui is currently leading the country with the most active Covid-19 cases per capita.
There were 337 new community cases of Covid-19, the Ministry of Health said today .
The Whanganui DHB region also recorded its second death of the pandemic.
The person was one of 23 in the country who died with Covid-19 today .
The Whanganui region also currently has the highest number of cases per 100,000 people.
On April 3 the Ministry of Health released a table of data including the number of active cases per 100,000 for each region of Aotearoa, of which Whanganui had 3414.
The regions with the next highest numbers were South Canterbury with 2596, Taranaki with 2939 and Hawke's Bay with 2886.
Whanganui medical officer of health Dr Patrick O'Connor said it was hard to say whether the region's case numbers had peaked yet.
"There's been the very faintest of decreases over the past four or five days but it's very, very gradual," O'Connor said.
He said by next week the situation would be clearer.
Whanganui has also suffered its first two deaths of the pandemic over the last few days, with the first being announced on Sunday.
O'Connor said it was hard to say whether more deaths were likely, but if any occurred it would be in line with the rest of the country.
"All I can say is that we're part of the New Zealand community, we all have our share. We will be affected as the rest of the country has been affected."
Nationally, the Ministry of Health reported 14,120 community cases, with 692 cases in hospital with Covid-19.
Locally, the Whanganui DHB had five cases in hospital with Covid-19, with two of those cases being treated for Covid-19.
'If a ‘swear word’ in our name helps get people to think about our message, that's a win.'