Coronavirus: New Zealand has 222 confirmed new cases of COVID-19 and sadly one death

New Zealand has 222 new cases of Covid-19 in the community and sadly one death, reports the Ministry of Health.

The death is of a patient who was in their late-70s at Auckland City Hospital.

Of today's new cases, 197 are in Auckland, two are in the Lakes District, two are in Wairarapa, one is in Northland and 20 are in Waikato.

One of the Wairarapa cases was first reported yesterday but has only been included in the official numbers today as it came through after the Ministry's 9am cut off.

The total number of cases in this outbreak is now 5,973.

To date, a total of 2,127 cases are now reported as having recovered from Covid-19.

The total number of cases in Auckland is 5,626 (2,001 of whom have recovered), 260 in Waikato (90 of whom have recovered), 47 cases in Northland (15 of whom have recovered), six active cases in Taranaki, eight active cases in the Lakes District, two active cases in Wairarapa, two active cases in Tararua and four cases in Canterbury (three of whom have recovered).

There are 91 people in hospital, including seven patients in intensive care.

There were 21,442 first and second vaccine doses administered yesterday - made up of 7,764 first doses and 13,678 second doses.

To date, 90% of New Zealanders have had their first dose and 81% are fully vaccinated.

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 step 2.

Waikato will move to alert level 2 at 11.59pm tonight.

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 8,726 confirmed cases since the pandemic began last year and 35 deaths.