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August 31, 2023
Hospital capacity freed as Covid cases decline
Peter Verschaffelt
Posted On August 31, 2023
The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 has reached its lowest level since February 2022.
The new case average has dropped below 500, and there were 157 cases in hospital as at midnight Sunday, including just two in ICU.
John Whaanga, the deputy director general of health, says 3484 people currently have Covid of whom 479 are Maori.
The ministry remains vigilant, even though the various masking and isolation mandates have been lifted.
“When we went though particularly trying to keep Covid out and all of those phases, there was always an understanding that at some point we would need to release the country and the country would need get back to some kind of normality. It’s important we consider that too and in some cases we’ve got public who are a bit tired of being told what to do, fundamentally,” he says .
Mr Whaanga says the lower number of people in hospital with Covid has freed up capacity for other services.
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