There are 2108 new community cases of Covid-19 in Canterbury today and another person with the virus has died in the region.
The Ministry of Health has reported 12,575 new community cases, 654 hospitalisations and 15 deaths across New Zealand today.
One of the deaths was in Canterbury and another in South Canterbury.
Of the other 13, three people were from the Auckland region, five from Waikato, one from Taranaki, one from Whanganui, one from MidCentral, one from Nelson Marlborough, and one from the West Coast.
Two of them were in their 60s, two in their 70s, four in their 80s, and seven were over 90. Six were women and nine were men.
Of the 654 people with Covid-19 in hospital today, 57 are in Canterbury DHB hospitals and eight in South Canterbury hospitals.
The average age of people in hospital with the virus is 57. There are 23 cases in ICU across New Zealand.
The other cases in hospital are in Northland: 25; Waitemata: 100; Counties Manukau: 124; Auckland: 94; Waikato: 57; Bay of Plenty: 36; Lakes: 12; Tairāwhiti: 4; Hawke’s Bay: 25; Taranaki: 15; Whanganui: 8; MidCentral: 18; Wairarapa: 2; Hutt Valley: 15; Capital and Coast: 15; Nelson Marlborough: 13; West Coast: 2; and Southern: 24.
Today's new community cases were in Northland (619), Auckland (2,147), Waikato (1,101), Bay of Plenty (604), Lakes (299), Hawke’s Bay (602), MidCentral (678), Whanganui (321), Taranaki (437), Tairāwhiti (128), Wairarapa (149), Capital and Coast (775), Hutt Valley (464), Nelson Marlborough (436), Southern (1,368), West Coast (81), and Unknown (9).
There were 43 new cases identified at the border. The total number of active community cases now stands at 86,122.
The announcement follows Medsafe's provisional approval of the vaccine as a booster dose for this age group.
In March, director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said he had received advice from the Covid Technical Advisory Group that boosters should be available for 16 and 17-year-olds and the Government has made a decision on whether to go ahead with that.
Currently only those aged 18 and over are eligible for boosters.
On the coming winter
Bloomfield said the sector was preparing for winter with a baseline of cases and extra infectious diseases not seen for years due to the border closures.
Bloomfield said for Omicron it was particularly important to get a booster vaccine.
People could also get Covid more than once and evidence showed vaccination offered better protection than earlier infection.
Bloomfield said unvaccinated people and those without a booster made up a disproportionate number of those in hospital.
"Please do get a third or booster shot, if you haven't already."
There were concerns about flu circulating at the same time as Omicron, as the flu virus had not been circulating the past two years.
He said Covid-19 had taught people a lot about basic health measures to help protect against infection, including hand washing and mask use. These measures would help protect against other diseases as well.
Pharmac had bought more than two million flu doses - more than any other years.
If people hadn't had a flu vaccination before, this was the year to do it.
Bloomfield said he wanted to give MMR vaccines a plug. Those vaccination rates were lower than they should be particularly for Māori and Pasifika.
However, other vaccination rates were high.
He urged parents to get their kids protected from measles too.
"The MMR vaccine is very effective and very safe. MMR vaccinations are lower than they should be, and need to be."
The catch-up campaign had also been kickstarted again.
- NZ Herald/ODT Online/RNZ
