There are 39 new Covid-19 cases in the community on Wednesday - 30 in Auckland and nine in Waikato - and one death, Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay has confirmed.
McElnay gave the updated figures at the 1pm briefing alongside Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins in Wellington.
McElnay began her address with some "sad" news, confirming the death of a Covid patient at Middlemore Hospital.
"Further details will be made available later today after discussions with their family," McElnay said.
"But on behalf of all New Zealanders, I'd like to recognise this family's loss and offer our sympathy."
Turning her attention to Wednesday's cases, McElnay said the new Waikato cases take the total amount for the region to 18.
Of the 39 new cases, only one is yet to be linked to a current case while just four of Tuesday's cases remain unlinked.
The total number of cases in this Delta outbreak is now 1420, of which 1085 have since recovered.
Dr Caroline McElnay gave the updated figures at the 1pm briefing. (Source: Other)
From the contact tracing that has already taken place, McElnay said the Ministry of Health predicts up to 36 more cases could be discovered amongst known household contacts in the coming days.
There are currently 32 cases in hospitals, 31 of which are in Auckland's three hospitals while the other case is in Waikato Hospital. Seven of those cases are in ICU or HDU.
The Ministry of Health currently has 1410 contacts linked to this outbreak, of which 82 per cent have been contacted and 79 per cent have received at least one test.
On Tuesday, 24,714 tests for Covid-19 were processed throughout the country, including 13,331 from Auckland.
In total there has been more than 3.49 million tests for the virus processed since the pandemic began.
On vaccinations, 63,624 doses were administered on Tuesday, made up of 17,592 first doses and 46,032 second doses.
More than 5.4 million doses have been administered in New Zealand to date.
There were also two new Covid-19 cases found at the border on Wednesday.
There were no unexpected Covid-19 detections in wastewater samples to report on Wednesday.
Wednesday's update comes as Auckland remains at Alert Level 3, but with easing of some restrictions.
The rest of the country, bar some parts of Waikato at Level 3, remains at Level 2.
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