Ten deaths – the most in a single day – have been reported in today’s Ministry of Health statistics, along with 19,566 new cases.
Photo: AFPThere are 23 people in intensive care.
Speaking at today’s Covid update, Northern Region Health Coordination Centre chief clinical officer Dr Andrew Old said they were pleased Auckland case numbers were tracking down and confirmed that Auckland’s peak had now passed.
Authorities are hopeful hospitalisations may turn a corner in the next week.
The average age of those hospitalised in the northern region remains about 40 The total average stay remains less than two days but for those over 65, it is more than three days.
Dr Old said an initial review of hospital admissions had found one third of those clearly had Covid as their reason for admission.
“A further third have Covid as a secondary finding, while a quarter were diagnosed with Covid during their admission and at the time of review, the contribution was unclear.”
This morning, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield told Morning Report he believed Auckland’s cases had peaked, but he expected hospitalisations would top 1000 and remain high for some time as the peak passed.
Modeller David Welch meanwhile was calling for a better testing regime, which could include sending rapid antigen test (RAT) swabs in the mail.
Dr Welch said this would help keep track of the variants the country was dealing with now that PCR testing and MIQ management of border cases were taking a back seat.
