There are 15,871 new Covid-19 cases in the community in New Zealand, the Ministry of Health announced on Friday.
The numbers were reported in the last 24 hours.
There are 899 people in hospital with the virus, including 27 in an intensive care or high dependency unit.
This is a fall on Thursday's hospitalisations of 913, with one less person in ICU compared with 24 hours ago.
The ministry also announced 13 Covid-related deaths.
Of the 13 people who have died, four each were from Auckland and Wellington, and one each were from Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Hawke's Bay, Taranaki and MidCentral.
One of the people was in their 30s, three were in their 60s, five were in their 70s, three in their 80s and one was in their 90s.
Eight were men and five were women.
"Our thoughts and condolences are with their whānau and friends at this sad time. Out of respect, we will be making no further comment," the ministry said.
One of those who died with Covid-19 was aged in their 30s. (Source: 1News)
Friday's deaths take the total number of publicly reported Covid-related deaths to 234.
The seven-day rolling average of deaths is now 11.
Friday’s 15,871 positive cases, detected through rapid antigen tests (RATs) and PCR tests, are located in Northland (558), Auckland (2982), Waikato (1432), Bay of Plenty (1024), Lakes (420), Hawke’s Bay (873), MidCentral (814), Whanganui (330), Taranaki (591), Tairāwhiti (224), Wairarapa (251), Capital and Coast (1063), Hutt Valley (567), Nelson Marlborough (519), Canterbury (2659), South Canterbury (251), Southern (1245) and West Coast (59).
The location of nine cases is unknown.
The ministry said 15,511 of Friday's figures were detected through RATs and 360 through PCR tests. A total of 3142 PCR tests were carried out in the last 24 hours, while 32,575 RAT results were reported.
The number of active community cases is 120,371. They were identified in the past seven days but have not yet been classified as recovered.
The ministry said the seven-day rolling average of cases is 17,197, up from 16,949 on Thursday.
There are also 29 new cases at the border, the ministry announced on Friday.
Auckland hospitalisations following trend in cases - down
Northern Region Health Coordination Centre's (NRHCC) chief clinical officer, Dr Andrew Old, said case numbers in Auckland had declined consistently for about two weeks. They are now about a third of what they were at the peak of the outbreak.
Although health officials were continuing to see high hospitalisation rates, they have started to follow the trend in cases and have declined over the past week, he said.
Old said although new admissions were falling, an average of more than 100 people per day were still being admitted to regional hospitals with Covid-19. He remarked tens of thousands of more people will still get the virus in the coming weeks.
"It's important for all of us to remember that past the peak does not equal out of the woods."
Greater mixing means greater risk
Old also spoke on changes to the traffic light system allowing people to head back into sports and social events.
He said people needed to remember many in the community are being adversely and disproportionately impacted by Covid-19.
Old said 300,000 people in the Northern Region are aged over 65, which is one in seven.
"Although cases in our older age groups have remained relatively low so far, with greater mixing comes greater risk. We're all interconnected and whilst out there making decisions for ourselves please continue to be mindful of older people and young ones, as well as those with underlying health conditions, that put them at greater risk. They all need our help to stay safe."
Officials not expecting increase in cases as restrictions ease
However, Old said health officials in Auckland were expecting cases will continue to plateau even with restrictions easing.
Although he acknowledged there could be a small increase, it was not what officials were expecting.
Old said restrictions easing was always a question of when, not if. Officials had been planning for this as a result.
He said it was fortunate cases in the region were coming down quite steeply, halving in the Pacific community.
Old was asked about how Auckland was coping in terms of health capacity. "Better, but still really stretched," he remarked.
He explained Auckland City Hospital is still deferring most non-urgent surgeries.
"We'll never get back the capacity that we lost over the last few weeks in terms of some of those deferrals," Old said. It will till take a "significant amount of time to catch up".
On Thursday, 18,423 community cases were announced.
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