COVID-19: Twenty-six deaths, 759 people in hospital, 8728 new community cases

  • 22/07/2022

There are 8728 new community cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand on Friday, the Ministry of Health has revealed.

Another 26 COVID-19 deaths were reported, taking New Zealand's virus death toll to 1954.  

The Health Ministry said 759 people remained in hospital with the virus, 13 of whom were in intensive care.

The seven-day rolling average of community case numbers on Friday is 8913.

Overall, New Zealand has reported over 1.5 million COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began.

Below is the full Ministry of Health COVID-19 update for Friday, July 22:

Today we are reporting 8,728 community cases, 759 current hospitalisations, and 26 deaths.

The seven-day rolling average of community case numbers today is 8,913.

Today we are sadly reporting the deaths of 26 people with COVID-19. These deaths occurred in the period since 26th April.

COVID-19 hospitalisations

  • COVID-19 Cases in hospital: total number 759: Northland: 20; Waitematā: 98; Counties Manukau: 62; Auckland: 101; Waikato: 66; Bay of Plenty: 40; Lakes: 13; Hawke’s Bay: 32; MidCentral: 36; Whanganui: 15; Taranaki: 16; Tairāwhiti: 3; Wairarapa: 6; Capital & Coast: 32; Hutt Valley: 26; Nelson Marlborough: 10; Canterbury:135; West Coast: 0; South Canterbury: 11; Southern: 37.
  • Weekly COVID-19 Hospitalisations - 7 day rolling average: 764 (This time last week 700)
  • Average age of current COVID-19 hospitalisations: 66
  • Cases in ICU or HDU: 13
  • Vaccination status of new admissions to hospital*: Unvaccinated or not eligible (55 cases); partially immunised <7 days from second dose or have only received one dose (4 cases); double vaccinated at least 7 days before being reported as a case (76 cases); received booster at least 7 days before being reported as a case (425 cases).

*These are new hospital admissions in the past 7 days prior to yesterday who had COVID at the time of admission or while in hospital, excluding hospitalisations that were admitted and discharged within 24hrs. This data is from Districts with tertiary hospitals: Auckland, Canterbury, Southern, Counties Manukau, Waikato, Capital & Coast, Waitemata and Northland.

COVID-19 vaccinations administered

  • Vaccines administered to date: 4,029,024 first doses; 3,981,770 second doses; 33,867 third primary doses; 2,699,350 first booster doses: 230,092 second booster doses: 265,514 paediatric first doses and 142,411 paediatric second doses  
  • Vaccines administered yesterday: 33 first doses; 46 second doses; 40 third primary doses; 935 first booster doses; 12,076 second booster doses; 87 paediatric first doses and 478 paediatric second doses.  

More detailed information, including vaccine uptake by District, is available on the Ministry website.

Tests

  • Number of PCR tests total (last 24 hours): 3,711
  • Number of Rapid Antigen Tests reported total (last 24 hours): 15,475
  • PCR tests rolling average (last 7 days): 3,406
  • Number of Rapid Antigen Tests dispatched (last seven days as of 21 July 2022): 4.5 million

COVID-19 cases

  • Total number of new community cases: 8,728
  • Number of new cases that have recently travelled overseas: 359
  • Seven day rolling average of community cases: 8,913
  • Seven day rolling average of community cases (as at same day last week): 9,994
  • Number of active cases (total): 62,345 (cases identified in the past seven days and not yet classified as recovered)
  • Confirmed cases (total): 1,538,320
  • Location of new community cases by district over past 24 hours

You can also view a detailed breakdown of daily case numbers for each district since the beginning of the pandemic by clicking the ‘download’ button on the right hand side of this page: New Zealand COVID-19 data.

Please note, the Ministry of Health’s daily reported cases may differ slightly from those reported at a district or local public health unit level. This is because of different reporting cut off times and the assignment of cases between regions, for example when a case is tested outside their usual region of residence. Total numbers will always be the formal daily case tally as reported to the WHO.

COVID-19 deaths

Today’s reported deaths take the total number of publicly reported deaths with COVID-19 to 1,954 and the seven-day rolling average of reported deaths is 26.

Of the people whose deaths we are reporting today: five were from Auckland region, two were from Waikato, one was from Bay of Plenty, one was from Lakes, one was from Tairāwhiti, one was from Hawke’s Bay, two were from MidCentral, two were from Nelson Marlborough, eight were from Canterbury, three were from Southern.

Two were in their 60s, three were in their 70s, ten were in their 80s and 11 were aged over 90. Of these people, 18 were women and eight were men.

This is a very sad time for whānau and friends and our thoughts and condolences are with them. Out of respect, we will be making no further comment on these.