The number of new community Covid cases in Canterbury has increased sharply compared to yesterday with 3488 reported today and 318 in South Canterbury.
Today's daily new cases in the Canterbury DHB area increased by more than 1200 compared to Monday when there were 2267 and 191 in South Canterbury.
The Ministry of Health also reported today another 15 people with Covid-19 have died in New Zealand.
The latest deaths take the total number of publicly reported Covid-related deaths to 199 with the seven-day rolling average of reported deaths now 10.
Of the 15 people who died, nine were from the Auckland region, three from Waikato, and three from Wellington. One was in their 50s, three in their 60s, six in their 70s, and five were in their 80s. Eight were men and seven were women.
Nationally there are 1016 people in hospital and 20,907 new community cases today.
There are 56 people with the virus in Canterbury DHB hospitals and two in South Canterbury hospitals.
"We have seen an increase today in case numbers across most regions of New Zealand, however, it’s not unexpected as we generally see lower testing and reporting over weekends," the ministry said in a statement.
Today's new cases are in Northland (802), Auckland (4,291), Waikato (1,882), Bay of Plenty (1,218), Lakes (594), Hawke’s Bay (1,243), MidCentral (954), Whanganui (399), Taranaki (636), Tairāwhiti (382), Wairarapa (323), Capital and Coast (1,377), Hutt Valley (808), Nelson Marlborough (683), Canterbury (3,488), South Canterbury (318), Southern (1,439), West Coast (50); and Unknown (20).
There were 34 new cases identified at the border. The number of active community cases in New Zealand now stands at 119,131.
In Canterbury, the CDHB reported 17,125 active cases in the region today, including 12,272 in Christchurch, 1468 in Waimakariri and 1683 in Selwyn.
Director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield and primary care lead Dr Joe Bourne hosted today's media briefing on the state of the Omicron outbreak in New Zealand.
Bloomfield said the latest analyses showed that Covid case numbers have passed their peak in the metro Auckland area.
This included falling case numbers in all three Auckland district health boards, he said.
Case numbers in Auckland today total 4291, a third of what they were on March 4.
"Analysis also showed that the increase in case numbers across the rest of the country is also slowing".
Though the pattern does differ by district health board.
However, case numbers are still "very much on the increase in the South Island", he said.
Speaking about hospitalisations Dr Bloomfield said the average length of stay for people in intensive care was five days.
Early in the outbreak were younger people often treated and discharged overnight, but this had changed.
