Covid 19 Omicron outbreak:15 Covid-related deaths recorded today, new cases in region

The Ministry of Health has reported 15 Covid-related deaths today.

These deaths take the total number of publicly reported Covid-related deaths to 199 and the 7-day rolling average of reported deaths to 10.

Of these 15 people who have died, nine are from the Auckland region, three from Waikato, and three from the Wellington region

One of these people was in their 50s, three in their 60s, six in their 70s, and five were in their 80s.

Eight were men and seven were women.

There are 39 patients with Covid-19 in Bay of Plenty District Health Board hospitals and 10 in Rotorua Hospital.

There are 1218 new cases in the Bay of Plenty District Health Board area and 594 in the Lakes District Health Board area.

These include both PCR and RATs tests.

Toi Te Ora-Public Health today reported 699 new cases in Tauranga City, 359 in Rotorua District, 186 in Western Bay of Plenty, 205 in Whakatane District, 56 in Kawerau, 71 in Ōpōtiki and 235 in Taupō.

There are currently 7688 active cases in the Bay of Plenty DHB area and 3542 in Lakes.

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 20,907 new community cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand today, the Ministry of Health reported

There are 1016 people in hospital, including 25 in intensive care.

Next step in Covid response to be announced

The Government will tomorrow unveil the next steps in the Covid response, with broad vaccine mandates and the use of vaccine passes likely to be relaxed.

The Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, has said she wanted the traffic light system to be "no more restrictive than it needs to be, so if there are areas we can pare it back, we will".

National and Act have both been pushing the Government to go harder with loosening Covid restrictions.

National last week called on the Government to immediately drop all scanning requirements for businesses and scrap vaccine passes for all but large indoor events.

The party also wants to get rid of all vaccine mandates for young people aged under 18, and move to a five-day isolation period.

Once the border reopens to Australians on April 13, National wants the traffic light system gone for good, and an end to pre-departure testing, along with the eventual phasing out of all vaccine mandates, with health workers to be phased out last.

Act also wants the traffic light system gone, along with scanning and tracing, and vaccine requirements.