Coronavirus: New Zealand has 163 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 and sadly one death

New Zealand has 163 new cases of Covid-19 in the community and sadly one death, says Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay.

The death is a man in his 50s who was isolating at home after discharging himself from hospital on Wednesday.

Paramedics attended a call this morning to an address in the suburb of Mt Eden and found the person passed away on arrival.

Of today's new cases, 159 are in Auckland, while four are in Waikato - taking the total number of cases in Waikato to 150 (59 of whom have recovered).

Today a total of 1,741 cases are now reported as having recovered from Covid-19.

That brings the total number of active cases in the community to 2,293 (the total number of cases in this outbreak is now 4,034).

There are still 15 cases in Northland (five of whom have recovered) and four active cases in Christchurch.

There are 69 people in hospital, including six patients in intensive care.

The sudden death of a 40-year-old man with COVID-19 who had been isolating at home earlier this week has been referred to the Coroner who will determine whether it was COVID-19 related.

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.

Waikato has seen an easing of restrictions as it moved to level 3 step 2 on Tuesday night.

Auckland will "step down" at 11.59pm on Tuesday 9 November.

The rest of the country is at alert level 2.

Last week, 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 6,777 confirmed cases since the pandemic began last year and 29 deaths.