There are 11,063 new community cases of Covid-19 to report today.
Director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield is hosting today's 1pm briefing with Ministry of Health chief science adviser Dr Ian Town.
Today's seven-day rolling average is 9731, the first time it has been under 10,000 for quite some time, Dr Bloomfield said.
There are 622 people with Covid-19 in hospitals around the country and 27 are in ICU or HDU.
Today the ministry reported the deaths of 16 people with Covid-19. The deaths of all 16 people were reported in the past 24 hours.
These deaths take the total number of publicly reported deaths with Covid-19 to 516 and the seven-day rolling average of reported deaths is 13.
"Of the people whose deaths we are reporting today, six were from the Auckland region, one was from Waikato, two were from Whanganui, one was from MidCentral, three were from the Wellington region, two were from Canterbury and one was from Southern.
"One person was aged in their 30s, two were aged in their 50s, three in their 70s, six in their 80s, and four were over 90.
"Five were female and 11 were male."
Dr Bloomfield said all DHBs in the South Island have reached their peak and case numbers are beginning to decline, except for the West Coast DHB, as it has faced far fewer numbers.
Despite this there were still 1813 new cases in the Canterbury DHB area and 250 in the South Canterbury DHB area.
The Government will review the public health response settings tomorrow.
An easing of restrictions could mean some or all of the country has the Easter weekend in the less restrictive orange light setting.
Cases in hospital: total number 622: Northland: 29; Waitemata: 99; Counties Manukau: 100; Auckland: 90; Waikato: 63; Bay of Plenty: 35; Lakes: 7; Tairāwhiti: 3; Hawke’s Bay: 19; Taranaki: 11; Whanganui: 10; MidCentral: 26; Wairarapa: 3; Hutt Valley: 16; Capital and Coast: 15; Nelson Marlborough: 13; Canterbury: 47; South Canterbury: 6; West Coast: 1; Southern: 29
Location of new community cases (PCR & RAT): Northland (559), Auckland (1,984), Waikato (965), Bay of Plenty (536), Lakes (214), Hawke’s Bay (474), MidCentral (534), Whanganui (225), Taranaki (370), Tairāwhiti (111), Wairarapa (137, Capital and Coast (683), Hutt Valley (355), Nelson Marlborough (404), Canterbury (1,813), South Canterbury (250), Southern (1,331), West Coast (108), Unknown (10)
