There are a record 222 new Covid-19 cases in the community on Tuesday, the Ministry of Health has confirmed.
The cases are located in Auckland (197), Waikato (20), Northland (1), Lakes District (2) and Wairarapa (2).
Another death — a person in their late 70s who was a patient at Auckland City Hospital — was also announced.
They were admitted to the hospital on November 11 and then tested positive for the virus.
"Our thoughts are with the patient's whānau and friends at this deeply sad time," the ministry said.
Dr Rawiri Taonui says the Government needs to wait for vaccinations to ramp up before moving down levels. (Source: Breakfast)
Another case in Taupō and Masterton have been announced, on top of those announced on Monday which have been added to Tuesday's numbers.
The new case in Taupō is a close contact of another case.
Both the Masterton case announced on Monday and the second case Tuesday were picked up through targeted testing.
This testing was done as part of a follow-up after a visit to the Wairarapa town by one of the Taupō cases on the November 6-7 weekend.
The ministry said Waikato's 20 cases were located in Ōtorohanga (9), Hamilton (7), Te Awamutu (1) and Te Kuiti (1).
The remaining two Waikato cases were "awaiting confirmation".
Helen Petousis-Harris says she's not seeing a situation where people will likely need annual boosters. (Source: Breakfast)
Twelve of the region's 20 new cases were known contacts and already isolating, two had been linked, and the remaining six were being investigated.
A total of 91 people are in hospital with the virus across Auckland (87), Northland (1) and Waikato (3), with seven in ICU or HDU.
Three of the Waikato cases in hospital include two who were transferred to hospital from a community isolation facility on Monday night.
Northland's new case is currently in Auckland, but has a residential address up north.
They are linked to another case in the same household.
No new cases have been recorded in Tararua.
Of the 222 cases announced on Tuesday, 135 have been linked to the current outbreak.
This means 87 are yet to be linked.
On Monday there were 173 new Covid-19 community cases recorded in New Zealand.
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