There are 2318 new Covid-19 community cases in New Zealand, the Ministry of Health has announced on Friday.
The numbers were reported over the last 24 hours.
There are 357 people in hospital with the virus, 21 more than Thursday.
Seven people are in an intensive care or high dependency unit, one more than 24 hours ago.
The average age of those in hospital is 62.
The seven-day rolling average of hospitalisations is 400, down on 515 a week ago, and on 416 24 hours ago.
Nine more people with the virus have died.
Of the nine people who have died, one was aged in their 50s, two were in their 60s, three in their 70s, two were in their 80s and one was aged over 90.
Seven were men and two were women.
Three were from Bay of Plenty, two each were from Waikato and Canterbury, and one each were from Whanganui and the Southern District.
There are now a total of 1865 deaths confirmed as attributable to Covid-19, either as the underlying cause of death or as a contributing factor.
The seven-day rolling average of total deaths attributable to Covid-19 remains at seven.
The seven-day rolling average of community cases is 2855, down on 3876 a week ago, and down on 3061 24 hours ago.
Friday's positive cases, detected through rapid antigen tests (RATs) and PCR tests, are located in Northland (78), Auckland (897), Waikato (196), Bay of Plenty (106), Lakes (43), Hawke's Bay (48), MidCentral (92), Whanganui (20), Taranaki (74), Tairāwhiti (24), Wairarapa (26), Capital and Coast (138), Hutt Valley (54), Nelson Marlborough (64), Canterbury (271), West Coast (14), South Canterbury (24) and Southern (148).
The location of one case is unknown.
A total of 3149 PCR tests were carried out in the last 24 hours, while 7287 RAT results were reported.
The number of active community cases is 19,997. They were identified in the past seven days but have not yet been classified as recovered.
An additional 170 people with Covid-19 had recently travelled overseas and arrived back in New Zealand, the ministry said.
On Thursday, 2780 community cases were announced.
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