There are 2244 new Covid-19 community cases in New Zealand, the Ministry of Health has announced on Wednesday.
The numbers were reported over the last 24 hours.
There are 288 people in hospital with the virus, 26 fewer than Tuesday.
Two people are in an intensive care or high dependency unit, two fewer than 24 hours ago.
The average age of those in hospital is 60.
The seven-day rolling average of hospitalisations is 326, down on 436 a week ago, and down on 339 24 hours ago.
Seventeen more people with the virus have died.
Of the 17 people who have died, one was in their 50s, two were in their 70s, two were in their 80s and 12 were aged over 90.
Nine were women and eight were men.
Four were from Canterbury, three each were from Waikato and the Wellington region, two were from the Auckland region, and one each were from Hawke's Bay, Taranaki, Whanganui, the West Coast and the Southern district.
There are now a total of 1893 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 seven.
The seven-day rolling average of community cases is 2122, down on 3303 a week ago, and down on 2251 24 hours ago.
Tuesday's positive cases, detected through rapid antigen tests (RATs) and PCR tests, are located in Northland (81), Auckland (877), Waikato (172), Bay of Plenty (88), Lakes (47), Hawke's Bay (50), MidCentral (80), Whanganui (26), Taranaki (59), Tairāwhiti (28), Wairarapa (17), Capital and Coast (143), Hutt Valley (58), Nelson Marlborough (43), Canterbury (268), West Coast (18), South Canterbury (29) and Southern (155).
The location of five cases is unknown.
A total of 3189 PCR tests were carried out in the last 24 hours, while 7336 RAT results were reported.
The number of active community cases is 14,854. They were identified in the past seven days but have not yet been classified as recovered.
An additional 109 people with Covid-19 had recently travelled overseas and arrived back in New Zealand, the ministry said.
On Tuesday, 2464 community cases were announced.
SHARE ME