The Ministry of Health is reporting 14,311 new community cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand in the past week.

This is over 3000 more than what was reported in the previous week. The seven-day rolling average of community cases has increased to 2041.

An additional 34 virus-related deaths have also been reported, and 185 people are in hospital - with two in ICU.

Of the deaths being reported today, nine were from the Auckland region, four were from Waikato, two were from Taranaki, one was from MidCentral, six were from Wellington region, one was from Nelson Marlborough, six were from Canterbury and five were from Southern.

One was in their 40s, three were in their 50s, two were in their 60s, nine were in their 70s, 12 were in their 80s and seven were aged over 90. Of these people, 16 were women and 18 were men.

Last Monday, 11,205 community cases were reported for the preceding week, as well as 25 deaths and 134 hospitalisations.

Those weekly case numbers were an uptick on the 9975 cases reported on 3 October, as two weeks of school holidays began.

The Omicron subvariant BQ.1.1, which appears to be driving a fresh surge of infections in Europe, was last week detected in New Zealand for the first time.

The subvariant was picked up in a person who tested positive for Covid-19 and in wastewater samples collected in Te Waipounamu, says the Ministry of Health.

-RNZ.