Friday March 10

Seven people with Covid-19 have died - the highest number of deaths reported in a single say since the start of the pandemic.

Today, there are are 20,989 new cases of Covid-19.

Of these, 765 are in Northland, 7,240 are in Auckland, 1,941 in Waikato, 1,352 in Bay of Plenty, 510 in Lakes, 855 in Hawke's Bay, 682 in MidCentral, 188 in Whanganui, 519 in Taranaki, 330 in Tairāwhiti, 174 in Wairarapa, 1,746 in Capital and Coast, 1,044 in Hutt Valley, 443 in Nelson Marlborough, 2,160 in Canterbury, 136 in South Canterbury, 878 in Southern, 22 in West Coast, and 4 cases are unknown.

The total number of active cases is 208,625.

Covid-19 related deaths 

Today, the Ministry of Health confirmed seven deaths.This is the highest number of deaths reported in a single day since the beginning of the pandemic. 

All of the people died within 28 days of having Covid-19 and this brings the total of publicly-reported deaths to 98. 

Of these deaths, five occurred in the Auckland region, one in Waikato, and one in the Southern region. 

One person was in their fifties, four were in their 70s, one was their 80s and one person was in their 90s.

Hospitalisations

856 people are in hospital. 20 people are currently in intensive care or high dependency units.

The average age of people currently in hospital is 57.

Home isolation

If you test positive for Covid-19, you are required to isolate for 7 days.

You do not need to be retested after your initial positive result.

If you still have symptoms after 7 days, stay home until you feel better and then wait another 24 hrs. Most people feel better after a week but if you are getting worse please do seek help, the ministry says.

If you are a household contact and you have done a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) on both day 3 and 7 of the isolation period of the first Covid-19 positive person in your house, and both tests are negative, you can leave isolation on day 8 if you are well.

If you are a household contact and return a positive RATs result while isolating, you will need to isolate for a further 7 days and wait till 24 hours after you are symptom free.

Other household members do not have to reset their isolation and can leave isolation on day 8, the same day as the first case can leave isolation, provided they have returned negative RATs results and are not symptomatic.

If you’re a critical worker, and you have a person in your household who has tested positive for the virus, you may be able to continue working if you are fully vaccinated, do not have symptoms and return a negative RAT before each shift or day of work.

Your employer will be able to tell you if you are a critical worker and what you need to do.

When not at work, you need to isolate like any other household contact as outlined above. Critical healthcare workers that are household contacts or cases have some additional exemptions. More details can be found here.

Testing

 13.4 million RATs have been dispatched in the last week. 

Click here for a list of updated locations of interest. 

Top image: A Covid-19 restrictions sign in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Fiona Goodall/Getty Images)

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