The Ministry of Health are today reporting 5169 new community cases, 599 current hospitalisations and 11 people in ICU. There are 18 deaths reported today.

'Of the 18 people whose deaths we are reporting today, three were from Auckland region, two were from Waikato, three were from Bay of Plenty, one was from Hawke's Bay, one was from Whanganui, one was from Wellington region, six were from Canterbury, one was from Southern,” says a Ministry of Health spokesperson.

'Five were in their 70s, eight were in their 80s and five were aged over 90. Of these people, seven were women and 11 were men.

There are 23 people in Bay of Plenty hospitals and 17 in Lakes hospitals.

The seven-day rolling average of community case numbers today is 4,938. Last Wednesday it was 6,355.

There are now a total of 1,705 deaths confirmed as attributable to Covid-19, either as the underlying cause of death or as a contributing factor. The seven-day rolling average increase in total deaths attributable to Covid-19 is now 15.

Covid-19 hospitalisations

• Covid-19 Cases in hospital: total number 599: Northland: 36; Waitematā: 59; Counties Manukau: 53; Auckland: 68; Waikato: 60; Bay of Plenty: 23; Lakes: 17; Hawke's Bay: 35; MidCentral: 21; Whanganui: 16; Taranaki: 12; Tairawhiti: 2; Wairarapa: 7; Capital & Coast: 15; Hutt Valley: 16; Nelson Marlborough: 15; Canterbury: 86; West Coast: 4; South Canterbury: 23; Southern: 31.
• Weekly Covid-19 Hospitalisations - 7 day rolling average: 630 (This time last week 772)
• Average age of current Covid-19 hospitalisations: 63
• Cases in ICU or HDU: 11
• Vaccination status of new admissions to hospital*: Unvaccinated or not eligible (51 cases); partially immunised

*These are new hospital admissions in the past 7 days prior to yesterday who had Covid at the time of admission or while in hospital, excluding hospitalisations that were admitted and discharged within 24hrs. This data is from Districts with tertiary hospitals: Auckland, Canterbury/West Coast, Southern, Counties Manukau, Waikato, Capital & Coast/Hutt, Waitemata and Northland.

Covid -19 vaccinations administered

Vaccinations administered in New Zealand

• Vaccines administered to date: 4,029,433 first doses; 3,982,329 second doses; 34,114 third primary doses; 2,711,403 first booster doses: 388,947 second booster doses: 266,282 paediatric first doses and 146,246 paediatric second doses
• Vaccines administered yesterday: 14 first doses; 31 second doses; 15 third primary doses; 556 first booster doses; 8,481 second booster doses; 28 paediatric first doses and 84 paediatric second doses
• More detailed information, including vaccine uptake by District, is available on the Ministry's website.

Tests

• Number of PCR tests total (last 24 hours): 3,935
• Number of Rapid Antigen Tests reported total (last 24 hours): 11,222
• PCR tests rolling average (last 7 days): 3,249
• Number of Rapid Antigen Tests dispatched (last seven days as of 9 August 2022): 1 million

Covid -19 cases

• Total number of new community cases: 5,169
• Number of new cases that have recently travelled overseas: 228
• Seven day rolling average of community cases: 4,938
• Seven day rolling average of community cases (as at same day last week): 6,355
• Number of active cases (total): 34,545 (cases identified in the past seven days and not yet classified as recovered)
• Confirmed cases (total): 1,657,743
• New cases by District and other more detailed case information

Please note, the Ministry of Health's daily reported cases may differ slightly from those reported at a District or local public health unit level. This is because of different reporting cut off times and the assignment of cases between regions, for example when a case is tested outside their usual region of residence. Total numbers will always be the formal daily case tally as reported to the WHO.

Covid-19 deaths

There are now a total of 1,705 deaths confirmed as attributable to Covid-19, either as the underlying cause of death or as a contributing factor. This is the number that will be reported to the World Health Organization as it provides the most accurate assessment of Covid-19 related mortality in New Zealand.

In the past seven days there have been an average of 15 deaths confirmed each day as being attributable to Covid-19. This is a very sad time for whānau and friends of those who have died, and our thoughts and condolences are with them.

Information on the number of new deaths of people with Covid-19 reported to the Ministry of Health in the last 24 hours, and the seven-day rolling average, is available on the Ministry of Health website. This includes information on the age band and location of these newly reported deaths.

Update to reported vaccination rates

As indicated in yesterday's statement, today's Covid-19 vaccination data has been updated because of a technical change to vaccine coverage reporting, which means some changes in reported vaccination rates.

These changes are the result of moving to the latest available Health Service User (HSU2021) population dataset to calculate vaccination coverage, which replaces HSU2020 data.

The HSU measures the number of people who have used health services over a 12-month period.

The latest HSU data includes an additional 233,000 people who have been identified as eligible for a vaccination after using health services during the 2021 calendar year, so they were not previously captured in the HSU2020 data.

The update will mean a decrease in overall reported vaccination rates, although the number of people already vaccinated has stayed the same, and will increase as more people become vaccinated.

The decrease in the overall vaccination rate is because although we have the same number of people vaccinated, we are now dividing that number by a larger group of people.

More detail about changes to vaccination data