Coronavirus: New Zealand has 74 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the community

New Zealand has 74 new cases of Covid-19 in the community, says Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield.

Of today's new cases, 68 are in Auckland, while six are in Waikato - taking the total number of cases in Waikato to 97 (27 of whom have recovered).

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

Today a total of 1,550 cases are now reported as having recovered from Covid-19.

That brings the total number of active cases in the community to 1,282 (the total number of cases in this outbreak is now 2,832).

There are still seven active cases in Northland and one in Nelson/Marlborough.

There are 41 people in hospital, including five 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.

Northland and the rest of the country are at alert level 2.

On Friday 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 5,539 confirmed cases since the pandemic began last year and 28 deaths.