There are 9563 new Covid-19 community cases in New Zealand, the Ministry of Health has announced on Thursday.
The numbers were reported over the last 24 hours.
There are 528 people in hospital with the virus, including 28 in an intensive care or high dependency unit.
This is a fall on Wednesday's hospitalisations of 551, with one more person in ICU compared with 24 hours ago.
The ministry also announced the deaths of 16 people with Covid-19. They had died over the past 13 days, including 12 in the past two days, the ministry said.
The ministry explained delays to reporting can be associated with people dying with, rather than of, the virus, and Covid-19 being discovered after they have died.
Of the 16 people who have died, five were from the Auckland region, four were from Waikato, two each were from Bay of Plenty and Canterbury, and one each were from the Lakes DHB area, MidCentral and Whanganui.
Two people were aged in their 60s, six were in their 70s, four were in their 80s and four were over 90.
Seven were men and nine were women.
"This is a very sad time for whānau and friends and our thoughts are with them. Out of respect, we will be making no further comment," the ministry said.
The latest deaths take the total number of publicly reported deaths to 547.
The seven-day rolling average of deaths remains at 13.
Thursday's positive cases, detected through rapid antigen tests (RATs) and PCR tests, are located in Northland (476), Auckland (1903), Waikato (744), Bay of Plenty (410), Lakes (185), Hawke's Bay (357), MidCentral (415), Whanganui (202), Taranaki (314), Tairāwhiti (78), Wairarapa (107), Capital and Coast (650), Hutt Valley (382) Nelson Marlborough (329), Canterbury (1617), South Canterbury (199), Southern (1089) and West Coast (103).
The location of three cases is unknown.
The ministry said 9266 of Thursday's cases were detected through RATs and 297 through PCR tests. A total of 5224 PCR tests were carried out in the last 24 hours, while 19,880 RAT results were reported.
The number of active community cases is 62,913. They were identified in the past seven days but have not yet been classified as recovered.
The seven-day rolling average of community cases is 8990, down from 9288 on Wednesday.
There are also 61 new cases of Covid-19 at the border, the ministry announced on Thursday.
Over Easter weekend, the ministry said people should have plans in place in the event they contract Covid-19 or are identified as a household contact of a case.
"You would need to self-isolate and likely remain wherever you test positive or become a household contact, so there may be extra costs involved in paying for additional accommodation and changing your travel plans."
The ministry explained if people had used their own vehicle to travel, they can travel back home to isolate. To ensure they don't infect anyone on the way, people should maintain social distance and use self-service petrol stations.
If people have used public transport or travelled between islands, people should isolate where they are holidaying.
The ministry also said there will be no Covid-19 update on Friday. Instead, the statement on Saturday will include data for the previous 48 hours.
On Wednesday, 9495 community cases were announced.
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