Coronavirus: New Zealand has 175 confirmed new cases of COVID-19 in the community

New Zealand has 175 new cases of Covid-19 in the community, reports the Ministry of Health.

Of today's new cases, 159 are in Auckland, one is in Taupo, two are in Northland, five are in Taranaki and eight are in Waikato - taking the total number of cases in Waikato to 225 (82 of whom have recovered).

The five cases in Taranaki were first reported on Thursday night, but are only just included in today's figures.

Today a total of 1,991 cases are now reported as having recovered from Covid-19.

That brings the total number of active cases in the community to 3,380 (the total number of cases in this outbreak is now 5,371).

There are still 41 cases in Northland (nine of whom have recovered), six active cases in Taranaki, one active case in Taupo and four cases in Christchurch (three of whom have recovered).

There are 93 people in hospital, including nine 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.

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

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 8,121 confirmed cases since the pandemic began last year and 33 deaths.