There are 11,464 new community cases of Covid-19 today, and 29 more people have died with the disease, including eight in the Southern DHB area.
There are 729 in hospital with the virus, including 18 in ICU, the Ministry of Health reports.
The seven-day rolling average of community case numbers today is 9710.
Of the deaths reported today, eight were from Southern. Of the others, seven were from the Auckland region, one was from Waikato, two were from Bay of Plenty, one was from Tairawhiti, two were from Taranaki, one was from Hawkes Bay, one was from MidCentral, two were from the Wellington region, two were from Canterbury and two were from South Canterbury.
The deaths take the pandemic total to 1737, and the seven-day rolling average of reported deaths is 19.
One of these people one was in their 50s, one was in their 60s, seven were in their 70s, ten were in their 80s and ten were aged over 90. Fifteen were women and 14 were men.
The deaths all occurred in the past five days, the ministry said.
The ministry's update today shows 469 of the Covid cases are reinfections - 168 are people who had previously been infected between one and three months ago.
Cases in hospital: Northland: 14; Waitematā: 145; Counties Manukau: 49; Auckland: 93; Waikato: 56; Bay of Plenty: 49; Lakes: 13; Hawke’s Bay: 25; MidCentral: 25; Whanganui: 13; Taranaki: 16; Tairawhiti: 4; Wairarapa: 10; Capital & Coast: 30; Hutt Valley: 29; Nelson Marlborough: 10; Canterbury: 90; West Coast: 1; South Canterbury: 14; Southern: 43.
Covid-19 modellers say community cases could reach 20,000 in the coming weeks and will likely mean many more deaths.
Dr Michael Plank told The New Zealand Herald that New Zealand was "definitely in a second wave".
"It's got potential to be quite a serious one. Hospitalisations are rising sharply now and that's concerning because the health system was already stressed with winter illness and flu."
Plank said mask use would remain critical for flattening the curve of the outbreak, and even though New Zealanders were relatively good at wearing masks, there was still room for improvement.
"We are probably still better at using masks here than many places who I think have fallen out of the habit.
"That's not to say there isn't room for improvement because there is and masks will be crucially important for flattening the wave."
- ODT Online/NZ Herald
