There are 5499 new community Covid cases in New Zealand today.
The latest case numbers were announced shortly after the Government unveiled a rough guide about its proposed response to future Covid-19 variants.
The Ministry of Health reported a further 18 Covid-related deaths in today's update. Fifteen occurred in the past three days, and three were since last Monday, June 13.
The deaths included three people from the Auckland region, one from Waikato and one from the MidCentral District Health Board region.
Another five people from the Wellington region, two from Nelson-Marlborough, three from Canterbury, one from South Canterbury and two from the Southern DHB area.
Verrall said the Delta lockdown in 2021 was necessary. The country at the time had insufficient levels of immunity to avoid lockdowns, she said.
Verrall and Bloomfield addressed media shortly before the latest virus case numbers and hospitalisations were announced.
On Sunday, new recorded daily community cases in Auckland fell below 1000 for the first time since late February.
But hundreds of people are in hospital with the virus, including four in intensive care.
Patients being treated in hospital today are in Northland: 8, Waitematā: 41, Counties Manukau: 37, Auckland: 57, Waikato: 26, Bay of Plenty: 10, Lakes: 1, Tairāwhiti: 2, Hawke's Bay: 6, Taranaki: 15, Whanganui: 3, MidCentral: 25, Wairarapa: 1, Hutt Valley: 17, Capital and Coast: 15, Nelson Marlborough: 5, Canterbury: 38, South Canterbury: 3, West Coast: 0, Southern: 24.
And today's community cases were detected in Northland (144), Auckland (1637), Waikato (335), Bay of Plenty (166), Lakes (81), Hawke's Bay (150), MidCentral (129), Whanganui (53), Taranaki (144), Tairāwhiti (54), Wairarapa (56), Capital and Coast (559), Hutt Valley (252), Nelson Marlborough (258), Canterbury (896), South Canterbury (85), Southern (446), West Coast (50) and unknown (4).