There are 5647 new Covid-19 community cases in New Zealand, the Ministry of Health announced on Sunday.
The numbers were reported over the last 24 hours.
Three people with the virus have died over the past three days. Two were in their 80s and one was over 90 years old.
Delays in reporting the deaths can be because people have died with Covid-19, rather than from Covid-19, and Covid being discovered only after they have died.
The deaths take the total number of publicly reported Covid-19 deaths in New Zealand to 860. The seven-day rolling average of deaths is 16.
The Ministry of Health also reported that the Omicron sub-variant - BA.5 - had been detected at New Zealand's border for the first time.
It was in a traveller who went to South Africa. The ministry said it could take time before BA.5's severity could be assessed, and that it would continue monitoring emerging evidence.
A further 73 Covid-19 cases were detected at the border in the 24 hours to Sunday.
As of Sunday, 350 people are in hospital with the virus. Of those, 17 are in intensive care or a high dependency unit.
Of the 5647 new Covid-19 community cases reported, detected through PCR and RATs, they were located in: Northland (129), Auckland (1,895), Waikato (353), Bay of Plenty (143), Lakes (77), Hawke’s Bay (176), MidCentral (184), Whanganui (69), Taranaki (131), Tairāwhiti (30), Wairarapa (67), Capital and Coast (424), Hutt Valley (206), Nelson Marlborough (189), Canterbury (914), South Canterbury (83), Southern (523), and West Coast (51).
Three people's locations were unknown.
It takes the seven-day rolling average of community case numbers to 7510 – approximately the same as last Sunday's figure of 7414.
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