Coronavirus: NZ has 71 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the community

New Zealand has 71 new cases of Covid-19 in the community, says Director of Public Health Caroline McElnay.

All of today's new cases are in Auckland.

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

Today a total of 1,189 cases are now reported as having recovered from Covid-19.

That brings the total number of active cases in the community to 601 (the total number of cases in this outbreak is now 1,790).

There are 33 people in hospital, including five 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.

The rest of the country is at alert level 2.

Northland and Waikato are set to move to level 2 at 11.59pm on Monday 18 October.

New Zealand has had 4,472 confirmed cases since the pandemic began last year.