There are 2021 new Covid-19 cases in Canterbury on Thursday and 109 in South Canterbury, the Ministry of Health said.
The daily number of new community cases has dropped slightly today to 21,015 cases, but the number of people in hospital with Covid continues to soar, rising to 773 today.
There are 18 people in Canterbury DHB hospitals and two in Timaru hospitals.
There are 15 new cases at the border. The number of active community cases in New Zealand is now 208,625.
The Canterbury DHB said earlier today there are 13,316 active cases in the region, including 8787 in Christchurch.
While the Ministry of Health initially said there were 845 people in hospital today, it revised that number down late this afternoon to 773, due to "data issues".
The hospitalisation counts for some regions were incorrectly reported, affecting the overall number for cases in hospital and also hospitalisation numbers for Northland, Auckland and Counties Manukau DHBs, it said.
The data for average age and vaccination status reflected is from a different source than the hospitalisation counts and there are no changes to this data.
The correct figures for cases in hospital today are: total number 773: Northland: 8; Auckland 158; Waitematā 154; Counties Manukau 195; Waikato: 71; BOP: 23; Lakes: 9; Tairāwhiti: 4, Hawke’s Bay: 21; Taranaki: 10; MidCentral: 17; Whanganui: 3; Hutt Valley: 17; Capital & Coast: 46; Nelson Marlborough: 4; Canterbury: 18; Timaru: 2; Southern: 13.
The average age of current hospitalisations is 54. There are 16 people are in intensive care. There was also one new death reported today.
"There are now more people in hospital with Covid-19 than at any other point over the last two years," the ministry said in statement today.
"DHBs have been planning and preparing for managing Covid-19 and the higher number of cases in the community which are resulting in more people in hospital. Our hospitals and their dedicated teams are continuing to do what’s needed to make sure everyone gets the treatment they need.
- Surgeries may be on hold from next week
- Fears hospitals will close permanently
- DHB almost at patient capacity
"DHBs have the flexibility to change their operations to respond to sharp increases in COVID-19 case numbers. Significant effort has been made by DHBs to maintain service delivery over recent months and measures have been put in place, like extended hours, weekend lists, outsourcing, and increased use of telehealth to maintain delivery. DHBs are also prioritising urgent and non-deferable cases which is ensuring they can cope with these extra demands. We sincerely thank them for their continued efforts during this time."
Director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield led the media briefing this afternoon on the response to the Omicron outbreak.
Bloomfield said the Delta variant was last detected in mid-February via sequencing.
He said although there aren't any current hospital admissions with the Delta variant, "we do know it's still out there in the community".
Covid deaths
Bloomfield said there would be some changes to the reporting of Covid-related deaths.
From today, there would be a dual reporting approach.
The Ministry of Health will report different categories:
• Number of people who died within 28 days of positive Covid-19 test;
• Number of people whose official cause of death was determined as Covid;
• Number of people where Covid was contributing factor, but not the cause;
• People who died within 28 days of positive Covid test, but cause has yet to be determined.
Bloomfield said the number of people who had clearly died from Covid-19 was 34.
Two people had died with Covid-19 but the virus clearly wasn't the cause.
The deaths of 48 people were still under investigation, he said.
Over the course of the pandemic 83 deaths have been announced, but Bloomfield said after some reconciliation there were some additional deaths which hadn't been publicly announced.
He said the total number of deaths from the Covid outbreak was 91.
Each one of these deaths represented a community and a whānau that was grieving, and he passed on his condolences, he said.
GPs under pressure
Dr Samantha Murton, of Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners, said there has been a substantial increase in the volume of work for GPs.
She said a huge amount of work has been put on GP.
"We recognise the people who had been physically generally well and vaccinated and boosted were able to manage it from home," she said.
If everyone was calling GP, there would be a lot of work, she said.
GPs were working very hard and doing the best the could for their patients and although they were prepared it could be a bit messy, she said.
There were also issues around isolation and needing supporting, and sometimes they sought this from the GPs and that was OK, but added to the workload, she explained.
Her colleagues had suggested people be kind to their practices. "Please have a bit a of patience as patients and be kind to the staff."
RAT results for kids
A challenge parents were having was reporting RAT results for their children and he acknowledged those that had been calling the 0800 number and experiencing delays, Bloomfield said.
Capacity in the 0800 222 478 number had been increased, he said.
Test results for children 12 and under can be done online, via My Covid Record, from tomorrow, he said.
He thanks everyone who had logged their RAT result so far.
He said from tomorrow parents and caregivers would be able to report their children's results online.
Novavax available
Today, the Novavax vaccine is available for New Zealanders to book after a shipment of 250,000 arrived.
It is available to those over the age of 18. It requires two doses, with a three-week gap and it has not been approved as a booster dose.
Bloomfield said the rest of the country was still some way of from peaking and that areas would peak at different times.
He said they would be watching case numbers closely in the next few days, and should get an indication of whether Auckland has reached its peak number of cases.
About 40 percent of people turning up to emergency departments were testing positive for Covid-19, but again some would be seeking care for the virus and others for separate reasons.
Bloomfield said they were working to compile data on whether people were going to hospital because of how ill they were from Covid-19 or if they had simply tested positive while admitted.
Meanwhile, t has been announced that nearly all of the MIQ facilities will return to being hotels by the end of June. Only four out of 32 MIQ facilities would stay in the network.
The end of managed isolation hotels means more than 600 Defence Force personnel involved will be able to return to their units.
Rydges in downtown Auckland will be the first hotel to leave the network, on April 30.
"MIQ meant that not everyone could come home when they wanted to. But it also meant that Covid-19 could not come in when it wanted to, either," said Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said it had served us "incredibly well" and he acknowledged all those who had worked in managed isolation and quarantine facilities around the country.
Yesterday it was announced that the isolation period for Covid-19 cases and their household contacts would be slashed from 10 to seven days from midnight on Friday.
Hipkins said as case numbers increased, larger numbers of people needed to isolate and the reduced isolation time was because of high case numbers and wider impacts.
"There needs to be a balance between effectively controlling the outbreak and the flow-on effect for business and essential goods and services such as transport and food supply."
