The Ministry of Health has admitted to undercounting the number of people hospitalised for Covid-19 by over 30 per cent.
In a tweet, the Ministry said this has seen the number hospitalised since the start of the pandemic increase by over 5000 people, from 14,043 to 19,476.
The Ministry said it was due to a "coding issue".
The Ministry said the miscounting had "no impact" on the advice it provided about Covid-19 settings. This was because the daily hospitalisation data, captured by a different system, was used to inform the Ministry's advice.
"The issue largely affected data about people hospitalised for Covid-19 who had relatively short stays of between one and three days, and who recovered after they were discharged. It had no impact on the care received by patients in our hospitals. "
- More to come
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