Covid 19 Omicron outbreak: More than 350 people in hospital, 9 more deaths as NZ navigates 'steady plateau' of cases

There are more than 350 people in hospital with Covid-19 and nine more deaths, the Ministry of Health has reported today.

The ministry said there are 4402 new community cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand.

Of the 354 people in hospital with the virus, eight are in intensive care.

Today's nine reported deaths take the total number of publicly reported New Zealand deaths during the pandemic to 1320.

Of the people whose deaths were reported today, one was from Northland, three from Auckland, two from Wellington region, another two from Canterbury, and one was from the South Island's Southern DHB region.

All were more than 60 years old.

Today's numbers come ahead of a possible review of the country's traffic light pandemic response settings as the country continues to grapple with the Omicron variant.

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.

Ministry of Health chief science adviser Prof Ian Town has indicated officials will review the country's orange traffic light pandemic response setting this week.

Professor Ian Town has said much is still to be learned about Omicron and its variants. Photo / Mark Mitchell

In a press conference on Wednesday, he said waves of Omicron were still reverberating worldwide.

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

It was still unclear which of the current Omicron variants was most likely to cause severe illness.

More than one million New Zealanders have contracted Covid-19.

Yesterday, the country recorded 5202 new community cases, 332 hospitalisations, and eight deaths of people with Covid-19.

The vast majority of new community cases were diagnosed by rapid antigen tests.

Overseas, some experts have said exposure to Covid-19, through vaccination or infection, did not guarantee immunity from future infections.