There are 1793 new Covid-19 community cases in New Zealand today, Deputy Director-General of Health Dr Andrew Old announced at a media conference.
The numbers were reported over the last 24 hours.
There are 260 people in hospital with the virus, 13 fewer than Tuesday.
Five people with the virus are in intensive care, two more than Tuesday.
The average age of those in hospital is 60.
The seven-day rolling average of hospitalisations is 263, down from 273 24 hours ago and down from 326 a week ago.
Eight more people with the virus have died.
Of the eight people with the virus who have died, two were in their 70s, four were in their 80s and two were aged over 90.
Five were women and three were men.
Three were from the Auckland region, two were from Hawke's Bay, and one each were from Taranaki, MidCentral, and Wellington region.
There are now a total of 1939 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 six.
The seven-day rolling average of community cases is 1655, down from 1719 24 hours ago and down from 2122 a week ago.
Wednesday's positive cases, detected through rapid antigen tests (RATs) and PCR tests, are located in Northland (64), Auckland (219), Waikato (164), Bay of Plenty (82), Lakes (31), Hawke's Bay (39), MidCentral (70), Whanganui (24), Taranaki (52), Tairāwhiti (19), Wairarapa (10), Capital and Coast (109), Hutt Valley (40), Nelson Marlborough (47), Canterbury (192), West Coast (12), South Canterbury (5) and Southern (96).
The location of two new cases is unknown.
An additional 112 people with Covid-19 were detected at the border, the ministry said.
The ministry notes that daily reported cases may differ from those reported at a district or local public health unit level, "because of different reporting cut off times and the assignment of cases between regions, for example when a case is tested outside their usual region of residence".
A total of 3301 PCR tests were carried out in the last 24 hours, while 6961 RAT results were reported.
The number of active community cases is 11,580. They were identified in the past seven days but have not yet been classified as recovered.
On Tuesday there were 2035 new Covid cases and 12 deaths reported in New Zealand.
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