Wednesday March 30
There are 15,918 new cases of Covid-19 today and 14 people with Covid-19 have died over the past six days.
Of these new cases, 634 are in Northland, 2,691 are in Auckland, 1,508 in Waikato, 987 in Bay of Plenty, 438 in Lakes, 892 in Hawke's Bay, 851 in MidCentral, 399 in Whanganui, 649 in Taranaki, 183 in Tairāwhiti, 152 in Wairarapa, 1,054 in Capital and Coast, 599 in Hutt Valley, 605 in Nelson Marlborough, 2,535 in Canterbury, 293 in South Canterbury, 1,386 in Southern, 55 in West Coast and 7 in unknown locations.
The total number of active cases is 104,769.
The Ministry of Health defines active cases as those identified in the last seven days and not yet classified as recovered.
The total confirmed cases to date is 642,447.
Hospitalisations and Covid-19 related deaths
14 people with Covid-19 have died in the past 6 days, bringing the total to date to 317.
The deaths being reported today include people who have died over the past 6 days but were only recently notified to the Ministry. Delays to reporting can be associated with people dying with, rather than of Covid-19, and Covid being discovered after they have died.
Of the 14 people with Covid-19 who have died, four were from the Auckland region, four from Waikato, one from the Lakes district, one from the Wellington region, one from Nelson-Marlborough, one from Canterbury, one from South Canterbury, and one from Southern.
Five of those people were in their 70s, six in their 80s, and three were in their 90s.
One was female and thirteen were male.
The 7-day rolling average of reported deaths is 15.
There are 817 people in hospital, with 24 of those people in intensive care or high dependency units.
The average age of people currently in hospital is 58.
Testing
Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) will be more widely available and the Government will launch a RAT service for people who live in rural areas.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said on Wednesday that “more than 95 percent of New Zealanders are within a 20 minute drive of a RAT access point. But we need to make sure that the 250,000 who live remotely are also able to access testing easily”.
Associate Minister for Covid-19 Response, Dr Ayesha Verrall, said district health boards had initiatives under way to reach rural communities.
“The service launched this week aims to connect households up with those initiatives … If there are no existing initiatives in the area, then the RATs will be courier directly to the household."
She also said a national Māori-led distribution channel has been able to distribute nearly 7 million RATs and 95.4 percent of Māori are within a 20-minute drive when it comes to accessing RATs.
A new brand of RAT, the Biocredit Covid-19 Ag Home Test, has also been recently approved. This brings the total of RATs approved for use in New Zealand to 12.
There are 31.5m RATs in stock and a further 48.4m will be delivered over the next four weeks.
The total number of PCR tests taken in the past 24 hours is 3,259.
The total number of RATs taken in the past 24 hours is 30,641.
If you take a RAT you must report the result, positive or negative. This can be done online through My Covid Record, or by calling 0800 222 478 between 8am and 8pm.
Vaccinations
96.3 percent of New Zealand's eligible population have had the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, and 95.1 percent have had a second dose.
72.7 percent of the eligible population have had their booster shot.
Top image: Face masks hanging in car. Photo: iStock
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