There are 4489 new Covid-19 community cases in New Zealand, Public Health Agency lead Dr Andrew Old announced on Wednesday.
The cases were reported over the last 24 hours.
There are 496 people in hospital with the virus, 37 fewer than Tuesday.
Thirteen people are in an intensive care or high dependency unit, one more than 24 hours ago.
The average age of those in hospital is 65.
The seven-day rolling average of Covid hospitalisations is 541, down on 630 a week ago, and down on 556 24 hours ago.
Sixteen more people with the virus have died.
Dr Andrew Old said cases are trending downwards. (Source: 1News)
Of the 16 people who have died, two were aged in their 60s, one was in their 70s, five were in their 80s and eight were aged over 90.
Nine were men and seven were women.
Four were from the Auckland region, three were from Waikato, two each were from Canterbury and the Southern District, and one each were from Northland, Bay of Plenty, the MidCentral District, Nelson Marlborough and South Canterbury.
There are now a total of 1794 deaths confirmed as attributable to Covid-19, either as the underlying cause of death or as a contributing factor.
The seven-day rolling average increase in total deaths attributable to Covid-19 is now 12.
The seven-day rolling average of cases is 3975, down on 4938 a week ago, and down on 4073 24 hours ago.
Wednesday's positive cases, detected through rapid antigen tests (RATs) and PCR tests, are located in Northland (127), Auckland (1728), Waikato (422), Bay of Plenty (198), Lakes (82), Hawke's Bay (110), MidCentral (160), Whanganui (60), Taranaki (142), Tairāwhiti (42), Wairarapa (52), Capital and Coast (188), Hutt Valley (153), Nelson Marlborough (122), Canterbury (547), West Coast (29), South Canterbury (53) and Southern (270).
The location of four cases is unknown.
A total of 3731 PCR tests were carried out in the last 24 hours, while 10,671 RAT results were reported.
The number of active community cases is 27,816. They were identified in the past seven days but have not yet been classified as recovered.
An additional 184 people with Covid-19 had recently travelled overseas and arrived back in New Zealand, the ministry said.
On Tuesday, 4811 community cases were announced.
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