[Source: 1News]

There are 8454 new Covid-19 community cases in New Zealand, the Ministry of Health has announced on Wednesday.

The numbers were reported over the last 24 hours.

There are 481 people in hospital with the virus, the same number of people who were in hospital on Tuesday.

Fourteen people are in an intensive care or high dependency unit, four more 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 March 5.

Of the 24 people who have died, one was aged under 10 and another was aged between 10 and 19. Two were aged in their 40s, one was in their 50s, two were in their 60s, nine were in their 70s, five were in their 80s and three were aged over 90.

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

Seventeen were male and seven 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 801.

The seven-day rolling average of deaths remains at 13.

The seven-day rolling average of cases is 7746, down from 7884 a week ago and also down from 7943 24 hours ago.

Wednesday’s positive cases, detected through rapid antigen tests (RATs) and PCR tests, are located in Northland (222), Auckland (2568), Waikato (501), Bay of Plenty (256), Lakes (142), Hawke’s Bay (278), MidCentral (308), Whanganui (102), Taranaki (245), Tairāwhiti (79), Wairarapa (112), Capital and Coast (614), Hutt Valley (231), Nelson Marlborough (281), Canterbury (1418), South Canterbury (106), Southern (900) and West Coast (85).

The location of six cases is unknown.

The ministry said 8164 of Wednesday’s cases were detected through RATs and 290 through PCR tests.

A total of 3918 PCR tests were carried out in the last 24 hours, while 18,053 RAT results were reported.

The number of active community cases is 54,210. They were identified in the past seven days but have not yet been classified as recovered.

There are also 124 new cases of Covid-19 at the border, the ministry announced on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, 9109 community cases were announced.