New Covid infections jump by 1500 in 24 hour period

Author: NZ Herald,
Publish Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2022, 3:09PM

New Covid infections have jumped by more than 1500 cases in a day as sickness levels ramp up and a third wave of the year looms large.

Yesterday the Ministry of Health reported 3923 new Omicron cases across New Zealand. The previous day there were 2410 infections.

The last time the single-day number of cases was around 4000 was August 17, a month before Covid restrictions ended.

This week the ministry reported 16,399 cases over the past week - an increase of about 2000 infections in seven days.

Some 6000 cases are in Auckland alone.

As of midnight on Monday, there were 243 people in hospitals across New Zealand with the virus and six in intensive care. That number has continued to edge up since protection framework restrictions were lifted in September when case numbers were low.

The ministry also reported 41 deaths including one person aged between 10 and 19.

There are now 2095 deaths attributed to Covid since the outbreak started in 2020. More than 2000 of these deaths have occurred this year.

While BA.4/5 remained the dominant variant across New Zealand, wastewater monitoring has recently detected a new subvariant BQ.1.1 in West Auckland, Rotorua and Porirua.

There is also a case of XBB, a recombinant variant that is made up of genetic material from two other subvariants.

Yesterday epidemiologist Michael Baker said given overseas trends there looked like being a third wave here this year but it was unknown at this stage how big it would be.

Even though the country was heading into summer, the time of year did not affect the sub-variants because they were so infectious, he said.

Covid-19 modelling expert David Welch last week described the third surge as a "puzzling picture" with a range of factors ranging from loosened restrictions, waning immunity and tricky new subvariants.

It appeared the doubling rate was around three weeks and not rising quickly which would possibly mean the coming wave would be smaller and shorter than the second wave.

Yesterday Te Whatu Ora Tairāwhiti (Gisborne District) reported 41 new cases, and noted the region's average daily infection rising.

"Our wave continues and it's our pākeke [adults] and most vulnerable who are getting sick and being hospitalised as a result," said the health authority in a Facebook post.

Last week, the Government announced it would be winding down special powers that enabled it to order lockdowns, vaccine mandates and managed isolation and quarantine before the end of the year.

Much to the relief of public health experts, requirements for infected people to isolate – which Australia recently scrapped – along with masking mandates in health and aged-care facilities have been retained.

They continued to urge people to ensure they'd been boosted and vaccinated, but also avoid infection altogether, pointing to the ever-present risk of long Covid.

The next review of remaining isolation and mask-wearing measures will take place by the end of November.