There have been 15,918 new cases of Covid-19 in the community and 14 more deaths reported today.

There are 817 people in hospital, down from 842 yesterday, with 24 people now in intensive care, down two from yesterday.

Auckland case numbers dropped from 2899 yesterday to 2691 today. The rest of today's new community cases are in the Northland (634), Waikato (1508), Bay of Plenty (987), Lakes (438), Hawke's Bay (892), MidCentral (851), Whanganui (399), Taranaki (649), Tairāwhiti (183), Wairarapa (152), Capital and Coast (1,054), Hutt Valley (599), Nelson Marlborough (605), Canterbury (2535), South Canterbury (293), Southern (1386) and West Coast (55) DHBs.

In today's statement, the Ministry of Health said it was encouraging to see case numbers continuing to decline, with today's seven day rolling average at 14,969, compared to 17,111 a week ago.

The ministry said the 14 new deaths reported today included people who have died over the past six days but were only recently notified to the ministry. The total number of deaths of people with Covid-19 is now 317.

Four of the new deaths were people from the Auckland region, four from Waikato, one from the Lakes DHB, one from the Wellington region, one from Nelson Marlborough, one from Canterbury, one from South Canterbury and one from Southern.

Five were in their 70s, six in their 80s and three were in their 90s. One was female and 13 were male.

Yesterday, 17,148 new community cases of Covid-19 were reported and a further 34 deaths of people with the virus.

Director of Public Health Caroline McElnay yesterday noted that overall Covid-19 case numbers were dropping but regional spikes were occurring.