There are 15,250 new community cases of Covid-19 today and 22 deaths related to the virus.
Director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield announced the latest Covid-19 figures at a press conference this afternoon.
The 22 deaths take the total number of publicly reported Covid-related fatalities to 338.
Of the people who have died, one was from Northland, 10 were from the Auckland region, one was from Waikato, two were from Bay of Plenty, two were from the Lakes DHB, two were from the Wellington region and four were from Canterbury.
Two people who died were in their 50s, four people were in their 60s, three people were in their 70s, six in their 80s and seven were aged over 90.
There were 15 women who died and seven men.
The deaths being reported today include people who have died over the past four weeks but were only recently notified to the Ministry of Health. Delays to reporting can be associated with people dying with rather than of Covid-19 and Covid being discovered only after they have died, the MoH statement said.
There are 830 people in hospital and 26 in intensive care.
Of the 830 people in hospital, 38 are in Northland, 128 in North Shore, 163 in Middlemore and 142 in Auckland.
The average age of current hospitalisations is 56.
Of those in hospital in the Northern region, 13.8 per cent are not eligible or unvaccinated, 3.1 per cent are partially vaccinated, 24.6 per cent are double vaccinated and 32.4 per cent are boosted. The vaccination status of 26 per cent of patients is unknown.
There are 2708 new cases to report in Auckland, Northland (662), Waikato (1352), Bay of Plenty (825), Lakes (348), Hawke's Bay (917), MidCentral (812), Whanganui (360), Taranaki (608), Tairāwhiti (201), Wairarapa (146), Capital and Coast (1009), Hutt Valley (587), Nelson Marlborough (729), Canterbury (2379), South Canterbury (305), Southern (1212) and West Coast (77).
The locations of 13 cases are unknown.
The total number of confirmed cases in the outbreak is 657,723,
Bloomfield said the lower hospitalisation rates in some regions were "puzzling". Everyone had put a huge effort to ensure the care in the community programme meant people could isolate at home safely and be prevented from going to hospital, he said.
Bloomfield said health officials expected a residual baseline of around 3-5000 cases per day as we come out of the peak.
Bloomfield said the number of deaths in New Zealand linked to Covid-19 is rising sadly - and the total number of deaths per million people now was 59.
"It's important to point out that even with that increase, New Zealand still has by far the lowest cumulative death rate from Covid-19 of any OECD country and one of the lowest in the world."
Bloomfield said there was a comparison made recently about New Zealand's death rate compared to the USA.
"In my mind, that's like comparing pears with beef steaks, actually. If you look back and the various outbreaks that the US has had, including their Omicron outbreak most recently, the death rate so far in our Omicron outbreak, and we are now three months into it, the death rate here is a fifth of what it was at the peak of the US Omicron outbreak.
"They are clearly at the different point in their Omicron outbreak," he said.
Hospitalisations are declining particularly in the Northern region which was evident in the last day or two,: he said.
Looking at the outbreak across the motu, there was a different pattern being seen in the main metropolitan centres compared to the regions.
In Auckland, Capital and Coast and Hutt Valley DHBs, which are confined to the cities, the outbreak went up quite quickly, peaked and is coming down quite quickly, he said.
In the regions, the outbreak was developing more slowly and there was a more sustained peak. Examples of this were in the Waikato and Southern DHBs.
A pattern of lower hospitalisations rates in the regions were being seen in the regions. Tairāwhiti, for example, had the highest case rate in the country over the last two weeks, but has only ever had a handful of hospitalisations.
Bloomfield said the Ministry of Health had been working with DHBs on different sprint events to increase vaccination rates.
Bloomfield said some of these were school-based.
He said by far the most common locations kids were being vaccinated included pharmacies, while general practices was also playing an important role.
Professor Peter McIntyre, of the University of Otago's Department of Women's and Children's Health, said a study in the US that looked at 10,000 kids at emergency departments and showed that two doses of the vaccine cut back emergency department admissions.
McIntyre said while complications from Omicron were uncommon for children, it did look like "an insurance policy worth taking up" given the impacts of the virus on other people around children, the prevention of severe disease for the child and the fact the vaccine was free.
Bloomfield said surveys of parents via text had been done in New Zealand since January, similar to what had been done in Australia.
On paediatric vaccinations, McIntyre said they could guarantee there would be two major issues.
They included access issues, such as getting children to vaccinations centres.
And parents who were uncertain - and who had a lot of questions about the vaccine.
On vaccinations post Covid-infection, Bloomfield said a wait for three months was recommended for all ages and for all Covid-19 vaccines in New Zealand.
This wait would allow for a better immune protection from the vaccine, Bloomfield said.
With winter coming, flu vaccine would be available tomorrow, he said.
Many people would be able to access free flu vaccines through workplaces, he said.
Even if you have had a Covid-19 vaccine, a person still needed the flu vaccine for winter, he said.
Meanwhile, Bloomfield said the first oral antiviral Paxlovid has arrived in the country and will be ready to be prescribed in primary care next week.
Paxlovid - a five day course - was shown to be very effective in keeping people out of hospital, he said.
When asked of the need to keep the Covid-19 Tracer app on your phone, Bloomfield said the virus had thrown curveballs to date and there may be another one that required the use of the app.
Bloomfield said there was very high level of responsiveness to request for social support, from people with Covid, and most of those requests were being turned around in 24 hours.
On Monday, Cabinet will be deciding whether to shift the country - or select regions - from red to orange settings, which will increase the number of people who can gather indoors.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said at a press conference yesterday he was yet to have "a firm leaning" for Monday's review of traffic light settings.
"We'll be following closely the public health advice we get over the weekend."
The main difference between red and orange was the size of indoor gatherings, he said. There is no limit under orange.
"The main thing we're all looking for is where we're at in terms of the overall peak."
In some parts of the country, case numbers were continuing to trend up, he said.
He wouldn't be drawn on Auckland's chances of moving to orange, having already passed its Omicron peak.
But he did confirm the traffic light system allowed for the possibility of different regions to be in different settings.
Meanwhile, this morning the Government announced new antiviral medications would soon be available for at-risk patients.
Doctors can start prescribing Paxlovid from next week, but the criteria for the pill is aimed at those more likely to get sicker from Covid such as those who are immunocompromised or had things like chronic respiratory conditions and diabetes.
It's hoped the Northern v Southern Rangitīkei match will help reboot local rugby.