There are 6636 new cases of Covid-19 in the community and seven further deaths.
Photo: Unsplash / Mufid Manjun
In a statement, the Ministry of Health said 480 people were in hospital, including 12 in ICU.
Today's rolling seven day average of new Covid-19 cases is 7553. Last Monday it was 8355.
A second person who has travelled from overseas to New Zealand has been confirmed as having the BA.4 variant of Omicron.
Both identified cases were isolating at their homes, the ministry said.
BA.4 has also far been reported in southern Africa and Europe, and in New South Wales. The ministry said the arrival of the sub-variant in New Zealand was not unexpected.
"At this stage, the public health settings already in place to manage other Omicron variants are assessed to be appropriate for managing BA.4 and no changes are required," the daily Covid-19 update said.
The deaths reported today included people who had died over the previous two days.
The latest deaths took the total number of publicly reported deaths with Covid-19 to 757. The seven-day rolling average of reported deaths is 11.
Three deaths took place in Auckland; one in Waikato; one in Bay of Plenty; one in Wairarapa and one in Canterbury.
One person was in their 40s; one in their 50s; three in their 80s and two were aged over 90.
Of these people, one was a woman and six were men.
Of the 480 hospital cases there is 27 in Northland, 78 in Waitematā, 64 in Counties Manukau, 90 in Auckland, 35 in Waikato, 26 in Bay of Plenty, one in Lakes, three in Tairāwhiti, 11 in Hawke's Bay, four in Taranaki, two in Whanganui, nine in MidCentral, two in Wairarapa, six in Hutt Valley, 11 in Capital and Coast, eight in Nelson Marlborough, 74 in Canterbury, four in South Canterbury, one in West Coast, and 24 in Southern.
Yesterday, one case of a new sub-variant BA.4 was found in New Zealand in a person who recently travelled from South Africa.
Microbiologist Dr Siouxsie Wiles says it is too early to reach any conclusions about the sub-varitant, but it does have some worrying mutations.
Wiles told Morning Report that this variant has a mutation that was found in Delta which could mean it is more severe than Omicron.
Vaccinated travellers from 60 visa-waiver countries are now able to enter New Zealand without having to stay in MIQ nor testing themselves for Covid-19.