Covid 19 Omicron outbreak: 11,634 new cases, 13 deaths

There are 11,634 new cases of Covid-19 in the community today and 13 deaths as one of the country’s most senior health officials has her final press conference before stepping down tomorrow.

At today’s Covid press conference, director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay joined her boss Dr Ashley Bloomfield, who has also quit his job.

It was reported 639 people are in hospital with Covid-19 and 29 are in the ICU.

Today’s hospitalisations were a small decline on yesterday’s numbers, Bloomfield said.

Of the 13 deaths, three people are from Northland, one from Auckland, two from Waikato, one from Bay of Plenty, one from Whanganui, two from West Coast and three from the Southern DHB area.

Three were in their 30s, two in their 50s, two in their 60s, four in their 70s, one in their 80s and one over 90. Seven were women and six were men. The deaths include people who have died over the past 10 days.

Weekly rate of cases had fallen over the last week from 22.5 cases per thousand people to 18.5 cases per thousand people, Bloomfield said.

There are 549 new cases to report today in Northland, 2179 in Auckland, 1030 in Waikato, 553 in Bay of Plenty, 266 in Lakes, 480 in Hawke’s Bay, 630 in MidCentral, 296 in Whanganui, 402 in Taranaki, 149 in Tairāwhiti, 98 in Wairarapa, 782 in Capital and Coast, 394 in Hutt Valley, 441 in Nelson Marlborough, 1913 in Canterbury, 224 in South Canterbury, 1157 in Southern, 89 in West Coast.

There were also 51 new cases of Covid-19 at the border.

Bloomfield said hospitalisations in the Northern region were declining but slowly and there were still quite a number of people on the wards in this region.

They were on the decline but there was a long tail of hospitalisations, he said.

Of the 639 cases in hospital, 27 are in Northland, 99 in Waitemata, 116 in Counties Manukau, and 99 in Auckland.

Of those in hospital, 40 people are unvaccinated or not eligible, nine are partially immunised, 67 are double vaccinated, 76 are boosted. The vaccination status of 139 cases is unknown.

In the past 24 hours 2719 PCR tests and 23,926 Rapid Antigen Tests have been carried out. 72.7 per cent of the eligible population is boosted.

Sixty three per cent of people were still using their Covid tracer app. Bloomfield suggested this was perhaps out of habit.

On the traffic light settings, Bloomfield said he wouldn’t say if he would be recommending a move to orange. He said there was ongoing pressure on the health system.

Bloomfield said it is hard to say if the school holidays will impact case numbers- but in the past school holidays hadn’t resulted in increasing infections.

Advice and planning around a fourth dose of the vaccine was going to ministers this week and a decision could be expected in coming weeks, he said.

On DHBs making up for lost time, he said they had been working on this for some time and they would be prioritising people whose care was high priority – such as people who need radiology or cancer care.

The Novavax vaccine had not been very popular with under 2000 doses taken up so far, Bloomfield said

The health officials’ resignations come as New Zealand starts winding back public health restrictions after reaching high vaccination levels and battling the Omicron wave of the pandemic.

The accuracy of rapid antigen tests is also in the spotlight, with increasing reports of people having the virus, but recording multiple negative test results.

The first 1pm Covid press conference was streamed on January 27, 2020 – and this stand up today was number 299.

The stand ups would continue – but without McElnay. She would be travelling overseas – and there were many people she wanted to thank.

“I want to finish by thank you all, all New Zealanders for getting us to where we are today on what has been a roller coaster of a ride.”

She also thanked the media.

McElnay said two years ago New Zealand was in the early stages of the alertlevel response and in lockdown.

We have learnt a lot since then but also a lot has changed, she said.

McElnay said some of the measures we had used previously weren’t needed now – mask use was needed.

Masks were a critical aspect of the public health response.

Reflecting on the past outbreak response, she described how car parks were turned into vaccination sites.

Her team were frequently working from home as many others did the same, she said.

McElnay said sharing information during Covid needed to be fast – and we had seen more online papers being published which allowed the spread of information within the science community often within days.

She said vaccines and treatments effective at keeping people out of hospital were developed fast as we developments in tracking and testing people.

“There have been frequent changes in advice and approach as we have learnt more about Covid,” she said.

She said they had endeavoured to use the science and experience here and overseas to guide the response.

“People have listened and people have acted.”

At times, it has felt as though there has been an overwhelming about of information produced about the pandemic, she said.

At the same time, misinformation was being produced.

McElnay recalled being a part of the group discussions early in the pandemic that provided advice to the Prime Minister and seeing the advice announced on television the following day.

“That weight of responsibility is very real and has continued throughout.”

Bloomfield said there had been some speculation and concern about his and McElnay’s departure.

McElnay finishes today while Bloomfield is in the role for four months.

“Dr McElnay has been instrumental and often the public face of the Ministry’s response,” Bloomfield said.

McElnay had developed a great team of people in ministry, critical relationships and a great deal of respect across the sector, Bloomfield said.

He acknowledged her mammoth effort towards the response and said she had been a rock for him.

She had embraced her role with grace. Bloomfield said he was pleased she was having a break.

Asked why she had decided to resign, McElnay said now was the right time to step away and take some time.

On abuse she had received, McElnay said she hadn’t received too much and she didn’t engage too much in social media.

“I’m here to do my job and I do it in the best way I can.”

On her travel, McElnay said she was going for an extended trip overseas but she did plan to return to New Zealand. She was originally from Ireland and planned to catch up with friends and family in Ireland.

“I don’t think there is ever a perfect time to leave any role,” she said.

McElnay said burn out is a very real thing and workplaces needed to acknowledge that – “I personally do not feel burnt out, I do feel tired.”

“If you are feeling tired, that is a real feeling”, she said, encouraging people to talk to their family, friends and health professionals.

McElnay said she wanted to spend more time hiking, doing long walks and going for a very long time without her cellphone.

“One of the advantages of going overseas is it makes it harder for people to get hold of you.”

She said she expected to be working in public health when she came back – but she hadn’t given any thought to a possible role in the new health entity.

On the UK’s response compared to New Zealand’s, McElnay said every country had responded differently.

New Zealand did have some points of difference from the UK that had an impact on our outbreak.

New Zealand was able to look to other countries that were further ahead of their outbreak, and as an island nation, New Zealand was able to close its borders, she said.

Today’s press conference also follows the news influenza has returned to New Zealand after a two-year absence.

Covid’s arrival in 2020 largely wiped out the flu, due to international border closures and lockdowns.

“Our immune naivety will be the big issue here, as most people will not have had flu for two years, if not longer,” Otago University virologist Dr Jemma Geoghegan told the Herald.

But tackling any future flu resurgence will be for the next crop of public health leaders to deal with.

The resignations of both officials became public knowledge yesterday, when it was also revealed Public Health deputy director Dr Niki Stefanogiannis was stepping down.

The resignations also happened amid uncertainty about looming health sector reforms, with the ministry moving into a strategy role and Health NZ running the health system.

Dr Jim Miller, from Toi te Ora Public Health in the Bay of Plenty, will be the acting director of Public Health from Monday.

McElnay’s resignation was announced to ministry staff in February.

McElnay planned to spend the next six months travelling, according to a ministry email the Herald obtained. Tomorrow is also Stefanogiannis’ last day with the ministry.

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