Another 24 deaths of people with the coronavirus and 9629 new community cases have been reported today.
File photo. Photo: AFP
In a statement, the Ministry of Health said 493 people were in hospital with Covid-19, including 11 in ICU.
It also revealed the Omicron subvariant BA.2.75 had been detected in New Zealand for the first time.
"The ministry regularly assesses the latest evidence on variants to ensure that our public health settings are appropriate. At this stage, there is no evidence that BA.2.75 requires a shift in public health settings already in place to manage other Omicron variants."
It said on Friday afternoon, analysis of whole genome sequencing confirmed two cases in New Zealand with BA.2.75.
The ministry said before testing positive for Covid-19, both cases had recently travelled from India, where this subvariant has been detected.
"BA.2.75 is a recently identified second generation subvariant of BA.2, the dominant variant circulating in New Zealand at this stage. BA.2.75 has only been recently identified as distinct from BA.2, and evidence on its transmissibility, immune evasiveness and severity is still preliminary and emerging.
"We do know BA.2.75 has some characteristics that looks like they may enhance its ability to evade immunity, similar to the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants, and there is some early evidence overseas that it may be slightly more transmissible that BA.2. There is no current evidence that it leads to more severe disease, although assessing the evidence is at a very early stage."
Of the deaths being reported today, five were from Auckland region, three were from Waikato, four from Bay of Plenty, one was from Lakes, one was from Hawke's Bay, one was from MidCentral, four were from Wellington region, four were from Canterbury, and one was from Southern.
These deaths occurred in the period since 14 April, the ministry said.
Three were in their 40s, five were in their seventies, seven were in their 80s, and nine were aged over 90.
That brings the total number of publicly reported deaths with Covid-19 to 1591 and the seven-day rolling average of reported deaths is 15.
There have also been 187 new Covid-19 cases at the border.
Meanwhile, Aotearoa is heading into the middle of winter and Covid-19 case numbers are rising - health professionals warn it could mean a return to red restrictions.
The seven-day rolling average of community case numbers today is 7246.
The ministry said the rise in Covid-19 cases today was not unexpected.
"It is not unusual for reported cases to rise following a weekend," it said.