20,907 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, 15 deaths reported

There are 20,907 new Covid-19 cases in the community in New Zealand on Tuesday, the Ministry of Health has announced.

There are 1016 people in hospital with the virus, including 25 in an intensive care or high dependency unit.

This is an increase on Monday's hospitalisations of 1000, with eight less people in ICU compared with 24 hours ago.

The ministry has also announced 15 Covid-related deaths.

Of the 15 people who have died, nine were from the Auckland region, and three each were from Waikato and the Wellington region.

One person was in their 50s, three were in their 60s, six were in their 70s and five were in their 80s.

Eight were men and seven were women.

"Our thoughts are with their family and friends at this sad time. Out of respect, we will be making no further comment," the ministry said.

Tuesday's deaths take the total number of publicly reported Covid-related deaths to 199.

The seven-day rolling average of reported deaths remains at 10.

Tuesday’s 20,907 positive cases, detected through rapid antigen tests (RATs) and PCR tests, are located in Northland (802), Auckland (4291), Waikato (1882), Bay of Plenty (1218), Lakes (594), Hawke’s Bay (1243), MidCentral (954), Whanganui (399), Taranaki (636), Tairāwhiti (382), Wairarapa (323), Capital and Coast (1377), Hutt Valley (808), Nelson Marlborough (683), Canterbury (3488), South Canterbury (318), Southern (1439) and West Coast (50).

The location of 20 cases is unknown.

The ministry said 20,676 of Tuesday's figures were detected through RATs and 231 through PCR tests. A total of 2007 PCR tests were carried out in the last 24 hours, while 43,768 RAT results were reported.

The number of active community cases is 119,131. They were identified in the past seven days but have not yet been classified as recovered.

The ministry said the seven-day rolling average of cases is 17,020, down from 17,124 on Monday.

There are also 34 new cases at the border on Tuesday.

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said the ministry's latest analysis confirms case numbers have indeed passed their peak in metro Auckland and that they are on their way down in all three of the region's DHBs - Auckland, Waitematā and Counties Manukau.

He said Auckland's 4291 case numbers on Tuesday were a third of what they were on March 3 two weeks ago.

Bloomfield added increases in cases across the rest of the country are also slowing.

He explained in the seven days to March 20, case numbers nationally (excluding Auckland) increased by just 1% compared to a 44% increase in the seven days up to March 13.

The pattern does differ by DHB though.

Bloomfield also said there were encouraging signs cases were peaking in the Te Manawa Taki (Midland) region and Wellington.

However, cases are on the increase in the South Island.

Bloomfield also said hospitalisations in the Northern Region - Northland, Auckland, Waitematā and Counties Manukau DHBs - were levelling off and had passed the peak in the Omicron surge.

He said health officials were expecting they will start to see hospitalisations drop in the region as the week progresses.

READ MORE: 15 Covid-related deaths on Tuesday

The average length of stay on wards was now 3.2 days, compared with just over two days last month.

The average stay in ICU is five days.

The number of new admissions each day is also dropping.

There has also been a drop in the positivity rates of people presenting to emergency departments in the region.

Bloomfield said the positivity rates remain the highest at Middlemore Hospital, although they have fallen from 40% last month down to 28%.

Auckland City Hospital had peaked at 30%. The positivity rate was now down to 22%.

Waitematā's positivity rate was sitting at about 18%, while Northland was 12%.

The positivity rate at Starship had gone from 35% down to 21%.

Bloomfield said while hospitalisations had dropped away over the last week or so in Auckland, admissions in other parts of the country were growing and would continue to do so.

READ MORE: Officials mull fourth Covid-19 vaccine dose for vulnerable

The country had not peaked in total hospitalisations yet. This normally occurs about one to two weeks after the peak of case numbers, he explained.

Bloomfield also revealed the differences in Auckland hospitalisation rates between the Delta and Omicron outbreaks - 8% and 0.9% respectively.

He said this confirms although Omicron is less severe, its impact on the health system is bigger due to the sheer number of cases.

Bloomfield added the hospitalisation rate will increase over the coming weeks by about 1-2%.

The director-general of health also said international experience suggests New Zealand can expect to see cases likely remain in the low 1000s each day for some time.

He said while the current Omicron wave is receding, it is clear the country needs to keep its wits about it with more waves and future variants of concern likely.

"In summary, we can be cautiously optimistic we are past the peak of this outbreak, particularly in Auckland. We don't know exactly how fast cases and hospitalisations will fall, and with colder winter months ahead we need to remain vigilant to Covid and other respiratory viruses."

On Wednesday, changes to the rules around Covid-19 vaccine passes and mandates, along with traffic light settings, will be announced.

On Monday, 14,463 community cases were recorded in New Zealand.