WELLINGTON, July 14 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand recorded 11,382 new community cases of COVID-19 and 23 more deaths from the pandemic, the Ministry of Health said on Thursday.

In addition, 334 COVID-19 cases have recently traveled overseas, it said.

Currently, 765 COVID-19 patients are being treated in hospitals, including 11 in intensive care units or high dependency units.

New Zealand has so far reported 1,464,237 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic hit the country in early 2020.

The government is rolling out additional measures to help tackle the second Omicron wave and record levels of flu to ease pressure on the health system and health workers, Minister for COVID-19 Response Ayesha Verrall told a press conference.

New Zealand is at the beginning of a second Omicron wave that could be bigger than the first, with the more transmissible BA.5 variant becoming the dominant strain in the community, Verrall said.

Extra measures include increasing access to antiviral medication to those most likely to end up in the hospital, making free masks and RATs more widely available and doing another push to lift the uptake of flu and COVID-19 vaccines including the second booster. Enditem

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