Eight more people with Covid-19 have died in New Zealand, while the number of new community cases has fallen to 14,494 today.
In a statement, the Ministry of Health said there were 896 people in hospital, including 18 in ICU.
Today is the fifth day in a row that total case numbers have dropped. There were 18,699 new community cases reported yesterday, with the death toll rising by 14 in the previous two days.
The Ministry noted that the fall in recent days has been most pronounced in Auckland, where case numbers have fallen from just under 10,000 reported cases on 8 March to 4509 today.
Today's other new cases were reported in the Northland (440), Waikato (1420), Bay of Plenty (931), Lakes (394), Hawke's Bay (597), MidCentral (472), Whanganui (137), Taranaki (355), Tairawhiti (289), Wairarapa (105), Capital and Coast (1141), Hutt Valley (845), Nelson Marlborough (376), Canterbury (1664), South Canterbury (93), Southern (703) and West Coast DHBs.
The seven-day rolling average of cases is currently at 19,771, a slight dip from yesterday's figure of 19,888.
Six of the eight deaths reported today occurred in the Auckland region, with one in Waikato and one in Lakes. Three people were in their 60s, one was in their 70s, one was their 80s, and three people were in their 90s. Two were male and six were female.
The total number of Covid-19-related deaths is now 113.
- more to come