Today we are reporting 8,150 community cases, 368 hospitalisations and 11 deaths. The seven-day rolling average of community case numbers today is 7,308 – last Wednesday, it was 8,024.
Omicron BA.2.12.1 update We are today reporting our first case of the Omicron subvariant BA.2.12.1 in a community case, without a clear link to the border, in Hawke’s Bay from a test result returned on 10 May 2022.
This Omicron subvariant is prevalent in the USA and has been detected at our border for many weeks - there have been 29 imported cases reported since April, so its movement into the community is not unexpected.
Emerging data suggests BA.2.12.1 is marginally more transmissible than the subvariants currently circulating in Aotearoa-New Zealand.