There have been 7592 new community cases of Covid-19 reported today, with 11 further deaths and 640 in hospital, while 23 people are in ICU.

The latest deaths bring the total number of publicly reported deaths with Covid-19 to 500, the Ministry of Health (MOH) says.

Today's case numbers are up from yesterday's by almost 1000, following the trend of less reporting of results and testing over weekends.

The seven-day rolling average of case numbers continues to decline, with today's seven-day rolling average at 10,169 compared to last Monday's 13,218, according to the MOH.

The deaths being reported today include 10 people who have died in the past three days and one person who died 12 days ago. Delays to reporting can be associated with people dying with Covid-19, rather than from Covid-19, and Covid-19 being discovered only after they have died.

"Of the people whose deaths we are reporting today, three people were from the Auckland region, three from Waikato, one from Hawke's Bay, one from Taranaki, one from the Wellington region, and two from Canterbury. Two were aged in their 60s, three in their 70s, three in their 80s, and three over 90. Five were female and six were male."

Of the cases in hospital (by district health board, in Northland there are 24, Waitemata: 102; Counties Manukau: 111; Auckland: 102; Waikato: 63; Bay of Plenty: 35; Lakes: 6; Tairāwhiti: 3; Hawke's Bay: 19; Taranaki: 11; Whanganui: 11; MidCentral: 23; Wairarapa: 3; Hutt Valley: 16; Capital and Coast: 16; Nelson Marlborough: 13; Canterbury: 46; South Canterbury: 6; West Coast: 1; Southern: 29.

There were 129 new community cases identified by PCR test today, and 7463 identified with rapid antigen tests.

There were 39 new cases identified at the border today.

In total, there have been 773,227 confirmed cases.

Yesterday, the Ministry of Health reported the deaths of 12 people with Covid-19 and said there were 604 people in hospital, including 22 in ICU. The number of new Covid-19 cases reported yesterday was 6718.

Hawke's Bay has had one of the highest Covid-19 hospitalisation rates of any area in the country over recent weeks with hospital staff and GPs describing the situation as extremely stressful.