5662 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, 9 deaths

There are 5662 new Covid-19 community cases in New Zealand on Sunday, the Ministry of Health reports.

A person getting tested for Covid-19. (Source: istock.com)

Nine deaths of people with the virus were also announced, with the deaths stretching back over the past nine days.

The deaths take the total number of publicly-reported deaths of people with Covid-19 to 674. The seven-day rolling average of these deaths is 13 – a drop of one from last Sunday’s figure.

Of the nine people, five people were over 90 years old. There was one each in their 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s.

“Delays to reporting can be associated with people dying with Covid-19, rather than from Covid-19, and Covid being discovered only after they have died,” the ministry said.

Across the country, 490 people are in hospital with Covid-19. Of this group, 20 are in ICU or a high dependency unit.

Sunday’s new cases, which were detected through PCR and RATs, were found in: Northland (203), Auckland (1455), Waikato (365), Bay of Plenty (223), Lakes (85), Hawke’s Bay (187), MidCentral (196), Whanganui (68), Taranaki (152), Tairāwhiti (50), Wairarapa (53), Capital and Coast (355), Hutt Valley (191), Nelson Marlborough (224), Canterbury (978), South Canterbury (128), Southern (666), West Coast (81). Two people’s locations were unknown.

The total number of active community cases is 59,018. The seven-day rolling average of new cases is 8435, an increase from last Sunday when it was 8170.

A further 44 new Covid-19 cases were found at the border.

On Saturday, the Ministry of Health reported 7930 new Covid-19 cases in the community. It also reported the first border-related case of the Omicron XE variant.