as the fifth wave of Co hits a new high in alador the government is melling over whether to continue offering free rapid antigen tests and face masks 8,040 cases of the virus have been reported in the past week here's Grace Thomas with more Mitchell sner celebrating with an elbow bump at the black caps clash with Pakistan on Sunday teammates not wanting to get too close as sner had just tested positive for Co two days prior from a perspective he was fine to play and so played last night this casual attitude to co is a far cry from these days there is a new community case of covid-19 to report in New Zealand today just this week in the midst of a fifth wave of the virus there have been 8,040 cases in 324 people hospitalized it is too soon to say whether we've peaked uh it'll probably take another week or two worth of data to sort of get clear of that holiday period and and to see what those Trends uh are looking like this immunologist is putting the growing infection rate down to a new subvariant jn1 the impact on disease severity has yet to be determined however there there is high transmissibility and so we're seeing increased uh cases and according to National Wastewater testing there's a lot more Co in the community that's going unreported the most recent results earlier this month found the level of Co in our waste water is three times the amount observed in mids spring and the highest since January last year it comes as the government's confirmed its reviewing whether face masks and Rapid antigen tests will remain free for the public beyond the end of February as a surveillance tool they're probably not they probably have limited use now because really it's only a relatively small fraction of people who are reporting those rat results the lack of exess has sparked consume for others as we've seen there are some around us um who remain at high risk of ending up with severe illness and hospitalization so ensuring um that we have access uh to what it is uh that we will need to get um is going to be really important but one of the key messages for kiwis wanting to avoid the virus is to make sure you're up to dat with Co vaccinations and boosters Grace Thomas newshub