[Source: 1News]

There are 8609 new COVID-19 community cases in New Zealand, the Ministry of Health has announced on Thursday.

The numbers were reported over the last 24 hours.

There are 386 people in hospital with the virus, a fall of 95 people on the 481 who were in hospital on Wednesday.

Fourteen people are in an intensive care or high dependency unit, the same number as 24 hours ago.

The ministry also announced 20 deaths of people with Covid-19. The deaths include 18 people who have died over the past five days and an additional two people who have died since April 24.

Of the 20 people who have died, one was aged under 10. One was in their 50s, five were in their 60s, two were in their 70s, seven were in their 80s and four were aged over 90.

Five of the people were from Bay of Plenty, five were from Canterbury, three were from Auckland, two each were from Hawke’s Bay and the Southern DHB area, and one each were from Waikato, the Greater Wellington region and the Nelson-Marlborough DHB area.

Eight were men and 12 were women.

“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 821.

The seven-day rolling average of deaths is now 14.

The seven-day rolling average of cases is 7684, down from 7705 a week ago and also down from 7746 24 hours ago.

Thursday’s positive cases, detected through rapid antigen tests (RATs) and PCR tests, are located in Northland (207), Auckland (2796), Waikato (543), Bay of Plenty (237), Lakes (135), Hawke’s Bay (229), MidCentral (347), Whanganui (104), Taranaki (239), Tairāwhiti (68), Wairarapa (88), Capital and Coast (575), Hutt Valley (242), Nelson Marlborough (323), Canterbury (1379), South Canterbury (114), Southern (900) and West Coast (76).

The location of seven cases is unknown.

The ministry said 8301 of Thursday’s cases were detected through RATs and 308 through PCR tests.

A total of 4311 PCR tests were carried out in the last 24 hours, while 16,107 RAT results were reported.

The number of active community cases is 53,775. They were identified in the past seven days but have not yet been classified as recovered.

There are also 97 new cases of Covid-19 at the border, the ministry announced on Thursday.

On Wednesday, 8454 community cases were announced.