There were 21,685​ new Covid-19 cases reported across the country in the past seven days.

As of midnight on Sunday, 422​ people were in hospital with the virus – nine​ of whom were in an intensive care or high dependency care unit.

The Ministry of Health provided the update, covering the period from Monday, January 2 to Sunday, January 8, on Monday afternoon.

The seven-day rolling average of new cases is 3092, the ministry said.

It comes after reported Covid cases fell significantly over the Christmas period.

In the week to January 1, there were 22,770 new cases reported – down from 32,010 new cases the week prior.

The ministry also that week reported a new seven-day rolling average of cases of 3246, down from 4565 the week before.

Of the 21,685​ new cases reported on Monday, 8609​ (39.7 per cent)​ were reinfections, ministry data showed.

Of these, 334​ were people who reported a previous infection in the past 90 days.

The ministry reported the deaths of 53 people with Covid-19 in the past seven days.

Five were aged in their 50s, five were in their 60s, 10 were in their 70s, 21 were in their 80s and 12 were aged over 90. Twenty-eight were women and 25 were men.

In the past week, Canterbury reported the highest number of new cases: 2696​, followed by Counties Manukau (south and east Auckland), 2537​, and Waitematā (north and west Auckland), with 2468​ cases.

There have been more than 2.13 million Covid-19 cases in Aotearoa since the pandemic began.

Not all information typically published each week was available on Monday.

The change in total deaths attributed to Covid-19 will not be updated again until January 16.

Modellers earlier advised they expected Covid-19 case numbers could peak in or near the week of Christmas.

-Hannah Martin/Stuff.