Coronavirus: New Zealand has 104 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the community

New Zealand has 104 new cases of Covid-19 in the community, reports the Ministry of Health.

The South Island has its first Covid case in 12 months - a person who flew from Rotorua to Marlborough and who has been linked to a Waikato cluster.

The Ministry of Health has confirmed the case is now isolating in Blenheim.

Of the rest of today's new cases, 91 are in Auckland, while four are in Northland and eight are in Waikato - taking the total number of cases in Waikato to 81 (14 of these have recovered).

43 of these new cases are household or close contacts of existing cases.

Today a total of 1,400 cases are now reported as having recovered from Covid-19.

That brings the total number of active cases in the community to 1,092 (the total number of cases in this outbreak is now 2,492).

There are 55 people in hospital, including five patients in intensive care.

Auckland and parts of Waikato (Raglan, Te Kauwhata, Ngaruawahia, Hamilton city, Huntly, Te Kuiti, Waipa, Ōtorohanga, Te Awamutu, Karapiro and Cambridge) are currently at alert level 3.

Northland and the rest of the country are at alert level 2.

Yesterday the Prime Minister revealed New Zealand will move into a new way of managing Covid-19 when District Health Boards have 90 per cent of their eligible populations vaccinated.

The traffic light system will use vaccine certificates to allow complying businesses to continue to operate at all times - and proposes to end nationwide lockdowns.

New Zealand has had 5,194 confirmed cases since the pandemic began last year and 28 deaths.