Toi Te Ora said with differences in reporting systems, report timeframes, and as case information was updated there may be some discrepancies in numbers such as with Ministry of Health data.
There are 19,542 new community cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand today, the Ministry of Health reported
There are 971 people in hospital, including 21 in intensive care.
The 24 deaths include eight people who died with Covid-19 yesterday and an additional 16 people who died in the past three weeks. Among the 24 deaths reported today are eight people whom the ministry know died at aged residential care facilities.
Three died in Northland, seven in Auckland, seven in Waikato, two in the Bay of Plenty, two in MidCentral and two in Wairarapa.
One of these people was in their 40s, one in their 50s, four in their 60s, three in their 70s, eight in their 80s and six in their 90s. Eleven were women and twelve were men. Demographic information for one person is not available.
The average age of the people announced today was 79 and this has been increasing over the last week.
The ministry was notified of these deaths by local health authorities in the past 24 hours as part of changes to the reporting of deaths that was announced last week.
"At this point in the outbreak, we are seeing increasing numbers of people dying with Omicron," " the ministry said in today's statement.
"Sadly, this trend is not unexpected, and our thoughts are with the families of these people."
This takes the total number of publicly reported deaths to date to 141.
Opening to the world
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says New Zealand is "ready to welcome the world back", announcing new dates to open up our borders.
Vaccinated Australians will be able to come to New Zealand without isolating from 11.59pm April 12.
Fully vaccinated travellers from visa-waiver countries will be able to enter the country from 11.59pm on May 1.
About 60 countries and territories, including Canada and the United States, are on the visa waiver list.
"We have now received guidance that it is safe to significantly bring forward the next stage of border reopening work, bringing back our tourists," Ardern said today.
"In short, we're ready to welcome the world back."
Ardern said the border was already open to New Zealanders - and on Monday eligible critical workers were allowed in without isolating.
People already with visa visitors, but outside the visa waiver list, would become eligible to enter New Zealand on May 1.
For people from outside visa waiver countries, the major issue was how to process new visas in a timely way, Ardern said.
