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March 29, 2022
Dr Rawiri Taonui Covid Omicron Māori | Assessing Peaks for Cases, Hospitalisations and Deaths
Dr Rawiri Taonui
Posted On March 29, 2022
General Situation
• There were 12,882 new community cases to report in Aotearoa yesterday.
• There have been 592,229 cases in the Omicron OutBreak since 1 February.
• Total cases since Covid-19 arrived in New Zealand passed the 600k milestone yesterday reaching 610,687.
• The 7-day average for cases is 16,100.
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Comparison with World Situation
The world total of Omicron cases peaked on 26 January. Two months later, new cases remain over twice as high as the peak of the Delta OutBreak in August last year.
In Aotearoa, Omicron will take several more weeks or months before cases before fall to late-January early-February levels of below 100 new cases per day.
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Cases by Ethnicity
• There were 8,022 new cases in the Pākehā community yesterday. While this is a drop from the 12,613 new cases reported on 22 March, Pākehā have had the highest number of cases for 36 consecutive days.
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• There were 2,429 new Māori cases yesterday. This represents a 50%-plus decrease from the peak of 5,332 cases on 8 March. Māori have had the second-highest cases for 23 consecutive days.
• Pacific Peoples cases have dropped by 87% since a peak of 5,783 on 4 March.
Hospitalisations
• There are currently 861 people in hospital with Covid-19.
• This includes 21 in ICU/HDU.
• The 7-day average for hospitalisations is 905.
• Over the last six days, hospitalisations have plateaued to between 860 and 960.
Hospitalisations lag total case numbers. We will need to wait between one to two weeks to see a further significant fall in hospitalisations.
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Deaths
• There were 11 deaths reported today.
• This brings the total during the Omicron OutBreak to 216.
• Total deaths since Covid-19 arrived in Aotearoa are 269.
• The 7-day average for deaths is 13.
• Deaths lag total case numbers and then hospitalisations.
Deaths will stay between one and 20 deaths per day with a steady levelling out after the first week of April.
We are likely to see a peak in deaths in two to three weeks (12 April to 19 April) somewhere between 290 and 360 total deaths (340 to 440 total deaths since Covid arrived in Aotearoa).
Kia noho haumaru, stay safe and self-sovereign.
Dr Rawiri Taonui
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