Five more Covid-19 related deaths and 1462 new community cases have been reported in Canterbury today.
There were also 150 new community cases in South Canterbury on Friday.
Across New Zealand, the Ministry of Health has reported 8242 new cases and a further 14 Covid-related deaths.
There are 480 people in hospital with the virus, including 15 in intensive care. There are 65 people in Canterbury DHB hospitals and two in South Canterbury hospitals.
The total number of publicly reported deaths of people with the virus now stands at 737 with a seven-day rolling average of 13.
Of today's deaths, five people were from Canterbury, two were from the Auckland region, one from Bay of Plenty, one from Waikato, one from Taranaki, one from Whanganui, one from MidCentral, one from the Wellington region, and one from Southern. One person was in their 50s, two in their 70s, seven in their 80s, and four were over 90. Eight were women and six were men.
The cases in hospital are in Northland: 34; Waitemata: 73; Counties Manukau: 65; Auckland: 101; Waikato: 43; Bay of Plenty: 14; Lakes: 2; Tairāwhiti: 0; Hawke’s Bay: 9; Taranaki: 6; Whanganui: 4; MidCentral: 9; Wairarapa: 3; Hutt Valley: 8; Capital and Coast: 6; Nelson Marlborough: 7; Canterbury: 65; South Canterbury: 2; West Coast: 1; and Southern: 28.
The locations of today's new community cases is Northland (233), Auckland (2446), Waikato (483), Bay of Plenty (265), Lakes (143), Hawke's Bay (283), MidCentral (313), Whanganui (118), Taranaki (184), Tairāwhiti (68), Wairarapa (78), Capital and Coast (542), Hutt Valley (196), Nelson Marlborough (284), Canterbury (1462), South Canterbury (150), Southern (888) and the West Coast (103).
The location of three cases is unknown.
In Canterbury this week, there were 978 new cases on Sunday, 1013 on Monday, 1099 on Tuesday, 1718 on Wednesday and 1505 on Thursday.
Today’s national seven-day rolling average of case numbers is 7540 - a reduction from last Friday, when it was 8166.
"With ongoing community transmission across the motu it is important we all remain vigilant," the ministry said.
"Please continue to follow public health advice to stay at home, away from school or work if you’re feeling unwell."
Meanwhile, 74 new Covid cases have been detected at the border. There are 52,771 active community cases in New Zealand.
Covid cases are dropping amongst children, but older Kiwis are still at risk as the New Zealand winter and flu season nears.
Despite the flattening out of case numbers Canterbury University modeller Professor Michael Plank said the ages of those infected was concerning.
He told TVNZ Breakfast case numbers were still high in the older at-risk groups.
"We know older people are at much, much higher risk of getting seriously ill and at risk of death.
"And what we're seeing is that case numbers have dropped sharply in those younger age groups but they've actually stayed high or they've dropped much more slowly in those older age groups.
"I think that's contributing to keeping our hospital numbers high and
keeping our deaths high."
Plank told the show it was "a concerning trend" that was evident in the hospitalisation and recent deaths.
On average there are 12 Covid-related deaths per day in New Zealand.
The relaxation of Covid mandates under the orange traffic light setting combined with the opening of borders and the onset of winter meant there could be a bump in cases, Plank said.
"I don't know if we will see a full-blown second wave at this stage but I do think we have to be prepared that case numbers will stay relatively high in the winter period, possibly in the thousands.
"It's possible we will have a second wave as immunity wanes in winter or maybe in spring."
New Zealand was at high risk of a bad flu season because, with closed borders, Kiwis hadn't been exposed to the flu virus for two years.
On top of that Plank warned New Zealand needed to be prepared for the possibility of a new variant "that comes out of nowhere and takes the world by storm".
Vaccine expert Helen Petoussis-Harris said Covid restrictions meant there was no exposure to the usual respiratory viruses that continually boost our immunity.
"This year it could be payback time for the holiday we had from influenza and some other nasties."
She urged people to get vaccinated against other infectious diseases not caused by viruses that were particularly dangerous such as whooping cough and pneumococcal disease.
"These could both be more prevalent this winter," she said.
-With NZ Herald
