Sunday March 13
There are 14,494 new cases of Covid-19 today.
Of these, 440 are in Northland, 4,509 in Auckland, 1,420 in Waikato, 931 in Bay of Plenty, 394 in Lakes, 597 in Hawke’s Bay, 472 in MidCentral, 137 in Whanganui, 355 in Taranaki, 289 in Tairāwhiti, 105 in Wairarapa, 1,141 in Capital and Coast, 845 in Hutt Valley, 376 in Nelson Marlborough, 1,664 in Canterbury, 93 in South Canterbury, 703 in Southern, 18 in West Coast and 5 in unknown locations.
This brings the total number of active cases to 197,251.
The Ministry of Health defines active cases as those identified in the last 10 days and not yet classified as recovered.
Hospitalisations and Covid-19 deaths
The Ministry of Health is reporting 8 Covid-19 related deaths.
Six were in Auckland, one in Waikato and one in Lakes. Three people were in their 60s, one was in their 70s, one was their 80s, and three people were in their 90s. Two were male and six were female.
This brings the total number of Covid-19 related deaths in New Zealand to 113.
There are 896 people in hospital, with 18 of those people in intensive care or high dependency units.
The average age of people currently in hospital is 57.
The Ministry of Health reports on deaths of all people who die within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19.
Home isolation is now only 7 days
At midnight last night, the rules for home isolation changed. Now Covid-positive people only need to isolate for seven days following their positive test, instead of 10 days.
This applies to anyone isolating at the time of the change.
The new rules are:
If you test positive: you must isolate for seven days. You do not need to be retested. If you still have symptoms after seven days, stay home til you are better and wait another 24 hours.
If you are a household contact: do a RAT on days 3 and 7 of the isolation period of the first Covid-19 positive person in your house.
- If both tests are negative, you can leave isolation on day 8, as long as you have no symptoms
- If you test positive, isolate for 7 days. Other members of your household do not need to reset their isolation period - they can leave isolation on day 8 of the first case, as long as they have tested negative and do not have symptoms
If you've tested negative but feel sick or have symptoms, stay home until you feel better, and retest in 48 hours if you still have symptoms.
Top image: A woman drips buffer solution from a plastic vial onto the lateral flow test device for Covid-19. Photo: iStock.