Covid-19

Covid-19 update: 16 further deaths, 528 people in hospital, 9563 new community cases

Published

5 years ago

April 14, 2022

There have been 9563 new community cases of Covid-19 reported today, along with 16 further deaths.

Many coronaviruses, cause of Covid-19, 3d illustration. (Photo by CHRISTOPH BURGSTEDT/SCIENCE PHOT / CBR / Science Photo Library via AFP)

Photo: AFP / Science Photo Library

In a statement, the Ministry of Health said there were 528 people in hospital, with 28 in ICU.

The 16 new deaths of people with Covid-19 occurred over the past 13 days, with 12 deaths in the past two days.

Two people were aged in their 60s, six in their 70s, four in their 80s, and four over 90. Nine were female and seven were male. Five were from the Auckland region, four from Waikato, two from Bay of Plenty, one from Lakes DHB area, one from MidCentral, one from Whanganui, and two from Canterbury.

The ministry said a total of 547 people with Covid-19 had now died in New Zealand.

Today’s new community cases were in the Northland (476), Auckland (1903), Waikato (744), Bay of Plenty (410), Lakes (185), Hawke’s Bay (357), MidCentral (415), Whanganui (202), Taranaki (314), Tairāwhiti (78), Wairarapa (107), Capital and Coast (650), Hutt Valley (382) Nelson Marlborough (329), Canterbury (1617), South Canterbury (199), Southern (1089) and West Coast (103) DHBs.

In the south, cases in the https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/465247/healthcare-services-coping-in-south-as-omicron-wave-lingers Southern DHB area have remained high] but those on the front line said health care services were holding up, with clinicians working long days.

There were also 61 new cases at the border

Yesterday the Ministry of Health reported 9495 new community cases of Covid-19 along with a further 15 deaths.

The total number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 has now exceeded the 800,000 mark, with a total of 803,269 cases.

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins is continuing to champion mask wearing, despite some requirements being loosened under the [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/covid-19/465198/covid-19-all-of-nz-to-move-to-orange-setting-from-11-point-59pm-tonight orange traffic light setting.

The next release of Covid-19 data from the ministry will be on Saturday.

The ministry said anyone planning to go away over Easter weekend should have plans in place in case they contract Covid-19 or are identified as a household contact of a case.

“You would need to self-isolate and likely remain wherever you test positive or become a household contact, so there may be extra costs involved in paying for additional accommodation and changing your travel plans.

“If you have used your own vehicle to travel, you can travel back to your home to isolate, taking public health measures to ensure you don’t infect anyone on your way home – such as maintaining social distance and using self-service petrol stations.

“However, if you have used public transport or travelled between islands, you won’t be able to isolate at your home. So it is important you have a plan and the ability to isolate where you are holidaying, if you need to do so.”

SOURCE: RNZ

Covid-19

Covid-19 update: 8544 new cases, 39 further deaths linked to virus

Published

3 years ago

June 19, 2023

News Staff

There were 8544 new cases of Covid-19 reported in Aotearoa in the week to midnight on Sunday, and a further 39 deaths attributed to the virus.

The total number of deaths attributed to the virus in New Zealand is now 3077.

In addition, there were 246 cases in hospital at midnight on Sunday with six in intensive care.

The seven-day rolling average of cases was 1217.

Last week, 9883 new Covid-19 cases were reported and a further 37 deaths were attributed to the virus.

Source: RNZ

Covid-19

Dr Jonathan Howard: why US doctors spread Covid disinformation

Published

3 years ago

May 21, 2023

News Staff

An American doctor believes more than 800,000 Americans would be alive today, if the US had taken New Zealand’s Covid approach.

Jonathan Howard, who is the chief of neurology at Bellevue Hospital in New York, said he was angry that influential health professionals minimised the seriousness of the virus.

“We want them infected,” was the call of then presidential science adviser Paul Alexander.

It’s also the title of Howard’s new book, which tells the story of how some medical and public health professionals came to become anti-vaccine and pro herd immunity.

He told Kim Hill on Saturday Morning there was a deluge of mis-information from prominent US doctors, some of whom wanted to actually spread the virus.

“Famous doctors from our top universities went on television and told people that Covid was just going away, that it was just the flu, that young people under the age of 65 have essentially no risk,” he said.

“And not only were there not attempts to limit the virus, these were loud influential voices who wanted to spread it.

“You can read quotes from our former Covid advisor, Donald Trump’s former Covid advisor, celebrating rising cases, saying this is a good thing when cases rise, which is shocking and astonishing.”

While Howard said there were obvious differences between the two countries, many lives could have been saved if the US had taken a similar approach to New Zealand.

“If we had limited infections until we had vaccinated the vast majority of our population, we would have potentially had hundreds of thousands of people still alive today, there’s no question about that.”

However, our zero-Covid strategy wasn’t without its critics, with Stanford professor Jay Bhattacharya writing that it had “cost New Zealand dearly”.

“I think that the fact that most of your grandparents are still alive means that zero Covid did not cost you dearly,” Howard said in response.

“I don’t discount that, there were real costs of the lockdowns, I don’t know anyone who argues otherwise and I want to be very clear that I was protected from those costs, meaning I am very fortunate to be employed, I worked throughout the pandemic, I was never lonely, I don’t have my own business.”

But Howard said he didn’t think that the alternative – letting the virus spread freely – would have yielded a better outcome.

He said that when forklifts were needed to move bodies into giant refrigerated trucks in New York, it was fantasy to imagine the city could have operated as normal during the pandemic.

“You talk about deferred healthcare – every single healthcare worker was working with Covid patients, our hospitals were overflowing,” he said.

“So when I hear people lament they missed cancer screenings, who would have done those screenings? Would elderly patients have left their house to go to crowded waiting rooms to get a mammogram for example? I don’t think so.

“I think that the fantasy is that things could have just been normal if only if it hadn’t been for overly cautious politicians.”

By comparison, New Zealand did well, Howard said.

“I look at the numbers, I look at your death rate with great jealousy.” he said.

“And I think for long periods of time your economy was more open than ours was because we had to keep locking down, just because there were overwhelming outbreaks of the virus.”

Howard said the fact many older New Zealanders were still alive compared with the US statistics, showed the success of this country’s Covid strategy.

Source RNZ