Nine people with Covid-19 have died, while there are 490 hospitalisations and 5662 new community cases. READ MORE:* Covid-19: Experts ask for Government focus on schools as Omicron XE arrives* Covid-19: Omicron XE not 'a big leap' from previous variants - experts* Covid-19: Omicron XE variant detected in NZ for first time, 7930 new community cases, 19 deaths reported* XE: What is the Omicron recombinant variant that might be more transmissible than BA.2? There are now 490 cases of people with Covid-19 in hospital, including 20 in an intensive-care or high-dependency unit. Elena mozhvilo/Unsplash As the Covid-19 virus mutates, new variants are taking hold around the world. These deaths take the total number of publicly reported deaths to 674, with seven-day rolling average of 13.

Source: Stuff April 24, 2022 04:38 UTC