Covid 19 Omicron outbreak: 4413 cases, five virus-related deaths, 352 in hospital; traffic light setting review this week

There are 4413 new community cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand today.

The Ministry of Health reported a further five virus-related deaths.

Of today's deaths two were from the Auckland region, one from Waikato, one from Bay of Plenty and one from Canterbury.

One person was aged in their 60s; two were in their 70s; one was in their 80s; and one was aged over 90. Of these people, two were women and three were men.

A total of 1325 people have now died with the virus.

There are 352 people in hospital with the virus, including nine in intensive care.

The cases in hospital are in: Northland 10, Waitematā 37, Counties Manukau 34, Auckland 57, Waikato 33, Bay of Plenty 13, Lakes 1, Tairāwhiti 2, Hawke's Bay 11, Taranaki 9, Whanganui 1, MidCentral 20, Wairarapa 3, Hutt Valley 24, Capital and Coast 21, Nelson Marlborough 8, Canterbury 43, South Canterbury 4, West Coast 0, Southern 21.

The seven-day rolling average of community case numbers today is 5921 - a drop from 6574 this time last week.

Today's 4413 community cases are in: Northland (101), Auckland (1312), Waikato (313), Bay of Plenty (158), Lakes (68), Hawke's Bay (135), MidCentral (183), Whanganui (68), Taranaki (117), Tairāwhiti (17), Wairarapa (39), Capital and Coast (396), Hutt Valley (189), Nelson Marlborough (180), Canterbury (678), South Canterbury (49), Southern (353), West Coast (54), unknown (3).

Meanwhile Ministry of Health chief science adviser Ian Town has indicated officials will review New Zealand's traffic light settings later this week.

Asked if New Zealand was still at the peak of the outbreak, Town said the country was instead on a "steady plateau".

New Zealand has been at the orange alert level since 11.59pm on April 13.

To date, more than one million New Zealanders have contracted Covid-19.

Yesterday there were more than 350 people in hospital with the virus, eight of whom are in intensive care and nine more people had died with the virus.

All nine people who died were over 60, with one from Northland, three from Auckland, two from Wellington region, another two from Canterbury, and one from the South Island's Southern DHB region.

The seven-day rolling average of community cases now sits at 5919, down from 6779 at the same time last week.

More than 90 per cent of new community cases today were diagnosed with rapid antigen tests.

In the week to Friday, 600,000 rapid tests were dispatched.