The Ministry of Health reported 2493 new community Covid cases in Canterbury on Thursday and 212 in South Canterbury.
Nationally there were 19,566 new cases and 930 people in hospital, including 23 in intensive care. There were 30 people in hospitals in the Canterbury DHB area.
The other cases in hospital were in Northland: 20; North Shore: 170; Middlemore: 250; Auckland: 202; Waikato: 66; Bay of Plenty: 35; Lakes: 7; Tairāwhiti: 2, Hawke’s Bay: 23; Taranaki: 10; Mid Central: 16; Hutt Valley: 22; Capital and Coast: 43; Wairarapa: 7; Nelson Marlborough: 11; and Southern: 16.
The average age of people in hospital is 58.
The number of Covid-related deaths now stands at 151, with a seven-day rolling average of eight.
The deaths reported today were in Northland (one), Auckland (five), Bay of Plenty (one), Hawke's Bay (one) and Hutt Valley (one).
"Our thoughts are with their family and friends at this sad time. Out of respect, we will be making no further comment," the ministry said.
Today's new community cases were in Northland (700), Auckland (4,867), Waikato (1,820), Bay of Plenty (1,265), Lakes (624), Hawke’s Bay (1,101), MidCentral (821), Whanganui (269), Taranaki (661), Tairāwhiti (385), Wairarapa (260), Capital and Coast (1,405), Hutt Valley (874), Nelson Marlborough (521), Canterbury (2,493), South Canterbury (212), Southern (1,220), West Coast (60); and Unknown (8).
Twenty five new cases were identified at the border. The number of active community cases in New Zealand is 199,645.
Northern Region Health Coordination Centre chief clinical officer Dr Andrew Old provided today's Covid update. He said there are 618 people in Auckland hospitals, including 10 in intensive care.
Old said one-third of admissions in the Northern region clearly had Covid as the reason for their admission.
Pressure continues to mount on hospitals as hospitalisation rates remain high, he said. Prior to Covid's spread, hospitals across the Northern region were already running about 15 per cent under ideal staffing levels, Old said.
On any given day, staffing levels are now down a further 10 per cent due to Covid issues.
Old said reporting negative RAT results is important as it provides an indication of where the outbreak is at.
As well as protecting yourself, being vaccinated is an important step to protect vulnerable people, including younger people who can't be vaccinated and those with underlying health conditions, Old said.
The ministry also reported more than 2.5 million Kiwis have had a Covid-19 vaccine booster dose: 96.7 per cent of the eligible population have had their first dose, 95.4 per cent their second and 72.9 per cent have had a booster shot.
Earlier today, director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield told RNZ's 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 Dr David Welch, meanwhile, called for a better testing regime, which could include sending rapid antigen test (RAT) swabs in the mail.
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.
Yesterday's numbers
On Wednesday, there were 2385 new community cases in the Canterbury DHB area and 184 in South Canterbury.
The ministry yesterday reported 19,542 new cases nationally, and 971 people in hospital with Covid-19, including 21 in intensive care. There were 24 Covid-related deaths yesterday, eight of whom died on Tuesday and 16 over the past three weeks. The ministry was notified of these deaths by local health authorities in the past 24 hours as part of changes to the reporting of deaths that was announced last week.
Delays in reporting could be associated with people dying with, rather than of Covid-19, and the virus being discovered after the person had died.
Yesterday's new cases were spread across Northland (661), Auckland (5318), Waikato (1834), Bay of Plenty (1347), Lakes (584), Hawke's Bay (1049), MidCentral (802), Whanganui (231), Taranaki (663), Tairāwhiti (370), Wairarapa (208), Capital and Coast (1308), Hutt Valley (780), Nelson Marlborough (487), Southern (1203) and the West Coast (30). The location of seven cases was unknown.
