1 May 2025
Erika Whittome
[FYI request #30541 email] Tēnā koe Erika,
Your request for official information, reference: HNZ00085108
Thank you for your request of 9 April 2025, which was transferred from the Institute of
Environmental Science and Research to Health New Zealand, asking for the following under the
Official Information Act 1982 (the Act):
This request was to the CEO Mr Bloomfield. The page you supplied says as of today there
are 4,603 deaths from Covid and a total case number of 2,717,063. Please confirm: Is
Ashley Bloomfield responding to this request that the fatality rate is 4,603 divided by
2717063? Ie the fatality rate for Covid 19 is 0.1694 %?
Response
Health NZ reports on COVID-19 death rates by calculating the total number of deaths per 100,000
people. Using a “per 100,000” measure is a standard in health statistics and epidemiology. It
provides a meaningful representation of an event, providing a standardised way of comparing
between populations of different sizes (such as across different countries), as well as a year-to-
year comparison when population sizes change.
For further information on the COVID-19 case fatality rate (CFR) for the period 1 January to 26
August 2022, please refer to the information below, sourced from the report
COVID-19 Mortality in
Aotearoa New Zealand – Inequities in Risk:
www.health.govt.nz/system/files/2022-09/covid-
19_mortality_in_aotearoa_inequities_in_risk_september_2022_29_sept.v2.pdf.
From 1 January to 26 August 2022, the population-based mortality risk (often called mortality rate)
from COVID-19 was 33.7 per 100,000 of population, and the CFR was 107.0 per 100,000 reported
cases. The infection fatality risk will lie between the population-based and case-based risks but
cannot be estimated from available data.
A population-based mortality risk estimate incorporates both the risk of becoming infected and the
risk of poor outcomes following infection. A CFR estimates the risk of death attributable to COVID-
19 among reported cases. However, the CFR is more challenging to interpret, because estimates
are affected by the proportion of infections that are identified and reported as cases.”
How to get in touch
If you have any questions, you can contact us at
[email address].
If you are not happy with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the
Ombudsman. Information about how to do this is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
by phoning 0800 802 602.
As this information may be of interest to other members of the public, Health NZ may proactively
release a copy of this response on our website. All requester data, including your name and
contact details, will be removed prior to release.
Nāku iti noa, nā
Sara Freitag
Manager, Machinery of Government Support
National Public Health Service
TeWhatuOra.govt.nz
Health NZ, PO Box 793,
Wellington 6140, New Zealand
