During the last week, there have been 11739 new cases of Covid-19 reported and 5682 reinfections.

There are 247 cases in hospital as of midnight Sunday and six cases in ICU. There are 65 more deaths reported.

'Of the people whose deaths we are reporting today: two were from Northland, 11 were from Auckland region, seven were from Waikato, four were from Bay of Plenty, four were from Lakes, two were from MidCentral, two were from Whanganui, seven were from Wellington region, three were from Nelson Marlborough, 13 were from Canterbury, ten were from Southern, one was unknown,” says a Ministry of Health spokesperson.

'One was in their 20s, two were in their 50s, eight were in their 60s, 20 were in their 70s, 21 were in their 80s and 14 were aged over 90. Of these people, 40 were women and 26 were men.”

The Bay of Plenty has 558 new cases of Covid reported in the last week. Auckland has 823 and Canterbury has 1770 new cases.

All deaths where someone has died within 28 days of being reported as having a positive test result for COVID-19 are now reported. This approach is in-line with that taken by other countries — such as the United Kingdom — and it ensures that all cases of COVID-19 who die are formally recorded to help provide an accurate assessment of the impact of COVID-19.

In many instances, further investigation will provide more information about the contribution of COVID-19 to their death.

This contribution can range from death not related, for instance someone with COVID-19 who dies in a car accident; to COVID-19 being a contributing cause, for example when someone dies with an existing health condition combined with COVID-19; and to COVID-19 being recorded as the cause of death.

Deaths that are still being investigated are reported as still to be classified.