There are 13,636 new community cases of Covid-19 and a further 30 virus-related deaths reported today.
There was no update yesterday as it was Good Friday, so today's update includes information from the past 48 hours.
The deaths reported today take the total number of Kiwis to die while infected with Covid to 576. The seven-day rolling average of reported deaths is now 14.
"This is a very sad time for whānau and friends and our thoughts are with them," the Ministry of Health said.
The seven-day rolling average of case numbers continues to decline. Today's seven-day rolling average is 8283 – last Saturday it was 10,843.
"The number of reported community cases is expected to continue to fluctuate day to day, but the overall trend remains an overall reduction in reported cases," the Ministry of Health said.
Today's community cases included 7763 on Friday and 5748 today.
Among the new cases today 638 are in Northland, 869 in Auckland, 1079 in Waikato, 532 in Bay of Plenty, 266 in Lakes , 460 in Hawke's Bay, 556 in MidCentral, 244 in Whanganui, 429 in Taranaki, 120 in Tairāwhiti, 121 in Wairarapa , 822 in Capital and Coast, 522 in Hutt Valley, 451 in Nelson Marlborough, 2255 in Canterbury, 325 in South Canterbury, 1747 in Southern, 137 in West Coast. A total of 14 cases are yet to be classified.
The 30 deaths, included 20 on Friday and 10 today.
There are 500 people in hospital including 15 in ICU.
The hospitalisations included 264 people in the Northern Region DHBs of Northland, Waitematā, Auckland and Counties Manukau.
Elsewhere, 28 people are in hospital in Waikato, 17 in Bay of Plenty, eight in the Lakes DHB, one in Tairāwhiti, 11 in Hawke's Bay, 12 in Taranaki, four in Whanganui, 19 in MidCentral, two in Wairarapa, 27 in Hutt Valley, 13 in Capital and Coast, 10 in Nelson Marlborough, 53 in Canterbury, five in South Canterbury, 26 in Southern. There are none in West Coast.
New Zealand moved to the less restrictive orange traffic light pandemic response setting at 11.59pm on Wednesday in time for the Easter holidays.
As people enjoy the long weekend around the country, there are no indoor or outdoor capacity limits. Seated rules have also been removed.
However, masks are still required at some gatherings and events, close-proximity businesses such as hairdressers and retail stores. The seven-day isolation requirement for positive cases remains.
Health officials have previously warned if people catch Covid while they are on the road, they may need to self-isolate wherever they test positive or become a household contact.
"There may be extra costs involved in paying for additional accommodation and changing your travel plans," the ministry said.
If a case had used their own vehicle to travel, they could go back to their home to isolate but needed to take public health measures to ensure they didn't infect anyone on their way home.
This included maintaining social distance and using self-service petrol stations, the ministry said.
However, if a person had used public transport or travelled between islands, they would not be able to isolate at home.
It was important people had a plan and the ability to isolate where they were holidaying, if they needed to, the ministry said.
Yesterday, five people had their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, 12 had second doses and 71 got boosters, the Ministry of Health said today. There were also two third primary doses given out, five paediatric first doses and 51 paediatric second doses.
Overall, 4,056,029 eligible Kiwis aged 12 and over or 96.4 per cent have now had their first Covid vaccine dose, while 4,005,949 or 95.2 per cent had also had their second jab and 2,609,339 or 71.5 per cent have had their third booster.
On Thursday, the last time case numbers were updated, the ministry reported 9563 new community cases of Covid-19 and a further 16 virus-related deaths.
There were 519 people in hospital, including 24 in intensive care.