Coronavirus: New Zealand has 147 confirmed new cases of COVID-19 in the community

New Zealand has 131 new cases of Covid-19 in the community and sadly one death, reports the Ministry of Health.

The death is of a man in his 60s who had COVID-19 and was isolating at a home in Glen Eden.

The cause of his death will be determined by the coroner, including whether it may have been COVID-19 related.

Of today's new cases, 117 are in Auckland, while two are in Northland and 14 are in Waikato - taking the total number of cases in Waikato to 179 (72 of whom have recovered).

Today a total of 1,875 cases are now reported as having recovered from Covid-19.

That brings the total number of active cases in the community to 2,938 (the total number of cases in this outbreak is now 4,813).

There are still 30 cases in Northland (six of whom have recovered) and four active cases in Christchurch.

There are 81 people in hospital, including 11 patients in intensive care.

Auckland, Northland 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.

Auckland and Waikato have seen an easing of restrictions and are now at level 3 step 2.

Norhland will move to alert level 2 at 11.59pm tomorrow night.

The rest of the country is at alert level 2.

Previously, 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 7,561 confirmed cases since the pandemic began last year and 32 deaths.