[Source: 1news]

There are 7347 new COVD-19 community cases in New Zealand, the Ministry of Health has announced on Friday.

The numbers were reported over the last 24 hours.

There are 363 people in hospital with the virus, down 23 on the 386 who were hospitalised on Thursday.

Eighteen people are in an intensive care or high dependency unit, four more people than 24 hours ago.

The ministry also announced 24 deaths of people with COVID-19.

The deaths include 12 people who have died over the past three days and an additional 12 people who have died since April 6.

Of the 24 people who have died, one was aged in their 40s, one in their 50s, one in their 60s, seven were in their 70s, eight were in their 80s and five were aged over 90.

Eight of the people were from Auckland, four were from Waikato, three were from the Southern DHB area, two each were from the Greater Wellington region and Canterbury, and one each were from Northland, Bay of Plenty, the Lakes DHB area, Taranaki and the MidCentral DHB area.

Eleven were men and 13 were female.

“This is a very sad time for whānau and friends and our thoughts and condolences are with them at this time. Out of respect, we will be making no further comment,” the ministry said.

The ministry explained delays to reporting can be associated with people dying with, rather than of, the virus, and Covid-19 being discovered after they have died.

The latest deaths take the total number of publicly reported deaths of people with Covid-19 to 845.

The seven-day rolling average of deaths is now 15.

The seven-day rolling average of cases is 7555, up from 7540 a week ago, but down on 7684 24 hours ago.

Friday’s positive cases, detected through rapid antigen tests (RATs) and PCR tests, are located in Northland (234), Auckland (2346), Waikato (443), Bay of Plenty (189), Lakes (106), Hawke’s Bay (212), MidCentral (272), Whanganui (83), Taranaki (226), Tairāwhiti (66), Wairarapa (100), Capital and Coast (482), Hutt Valley (185), Nelson Marlborough (254), Canterbury (1261), South Canterbury (99), Southern (721) and West Coast (64).

The location of four cases is unknown.

The ministry said 7099 of Friday’s cases were detected through RATs and 248 through PCR tests.

A total of 3704 PCR tests were carried out in the last 24 hours, while 14,432 RAT results were reported.

The number of active community cases is 52,870. They were identified in the past seven days but have not yet been classified as recovered.

There are also 79 new cases of Covid-19 at the border, the ministry announced on Friday.

On Thursday, 8609 community cases were announced.