The location of six of today's cases is unknown.
Meanwhile, 11 new cases were detected at the border, including eight probable cases and three confirmed.
There are 192,492 active community cases in total. Active cases are those that were identified in the past 10 days and are not yet classed as recovered.
Omicron spreading among the elderly and overwhelming the hospital system, so that sick people can't get treated, is the biggest worry in this outbreak, says epidemiologist Rod Jackson, who warns that the daily numbers don't mean anything.
The 696 hospitalised cases are at Northland (7), North Shore (136), Middlemore (195), Auckland (189), Waikato (53), BOP (23), Rotorua (7), Tairawhiti (2), Hawke's Bay (8), Taranaki (6), MidCentral (13), Wairarapa (3), Hutt Valley (7), Capital and Coast (24), Nelson Marlborough (4), Canterbury (14) and Southern (5) hospitals.
The average age of those in hospital is 57.
The vaccination status for those in northern region wards (Auckland and Northland hospitals) and excluding emergency departments is:
• Unvaccinated or not eligible: 78 cases / 16.5 per cent
• Partially immunised <7 days from second dose or have only received one dose: 13 cases / 2.8 per cent
• Double vaccinated at least 7 days before being reported as a case: 173 cases / 36.9 per cent
• Received booster at least 7 days before being reported as a case: 114 cases / 24.3 per cent
• Unknown: 91 cases / 19.4 per cent
The ministry said that the hospitalisation figures showed that based on the data available unvaccinated people are four times over-represented in the current hospitalisation data. Three per cent of eligible people aged 12 and over in New Zealand have had no doses of the vaccine, however, of the eligible people in Northland and Auckland hospitals with Covid-19, 13 per cent have had no doses of the vaccine, the ministry said.
In the last 24 hours, 4,752 PCR tests were processed.
The PCR test rolling average for the seven day period to March 3 is 14, 397.
In the last seven days, 9.7m RATs have been dispatched.
The ministry said care needed to be taken when interpreting daily reported Covid-19 cases which were expected to continue to fluctuate.
"This means that the seven-day rolling average of cases gives a more reliable indicator of testing trends. The seven-day rolling average of cases is today 17,921, up from 17,272 yesterday."
The ministry said the number of cases and hospitalisations was a reminder of the importance of getting vaccinated and boosted.
"Being boosted greatly reduces the chances of getting severely ill and requiring hospital-level care if you contract Covid-19. Boosters offer a high level of protection against Omicron, so if it has been three months or more since your second dose of the vaccine, please get your booster."
Yesterday, there were 5,697 booster doses administered.
There were also 116 first doses, 313 second doses, three third primary doses, 619 paediatric first doses and 183 paediatric second doses administered in New Zealand yesterday.
Across all ethnicities, and including people vaccinated overseas, 96.6 per cent of eligible people aged 12 and older have had their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, 95.2 per cent have had their second and 72.3 per cent of those eligible have been boosted.
For Māori, eligible and aged over 12, and including people vaccinated overseas, 91.1 per cent have had their first dose, 87.6 per cent have had their second and 59.8 per cent of those eligible have had their booster.
For Pacific peoples, eligible and aged 12 and older, and including people vaccinated overseas, 98.1 per cent have received their first dose, 96 per cent have had two and 59.4 per cent have been boosted.
For children, eligible and aged 5-11, 52.4 per cent have had one dose of vaccine and 1.1 per cent have received two.
For eligible Māori children, in this age group, 32.9 per cent have had one dose and 0.7 per cent have had two doses.
For eligible Pacific children, aged 5-11, 45 per cent have had one dose of vaccine and 1.3 per cent have had their second dose.
More than 47,000 RAT results were reported yesterday, of which 16,625 were positive.
"We would again urge people to self-report RATs results, even if it is negative. If you are a household contact please still report your RATs results separately, even if other household members have already reported theirs."
If you take a RAT you can report the result online through my Covid Record or by calling 0800 222 478 between 8am and 8pm.
The ministry is increasing the number of staff available to meet the demand from people seeking to report RATs results via the phone.
Yesterday, 33,000 RATs order were placed through the RAT requester site, the ministry said.In the four days since the RAT Requestor went live, orders have given more than a million New Zealanders access to RATs, the ministry said.More than 8m RATs arrived in the country over the weekend, and New Zealand had 9.7m in our central supply.
"If you are symptomatic or a household contact, you can order RATs through the newly launched RAT requester site. You, or someone of your behalf, can collect your RAT order from a collection site listed on Healthpoint. Please only go to those sites that are listed as collection sites."If you need RATs for other reasons, such as travel, they can be purchased at a growing number of retailers."
Meanwhile, as Omicron continued to spread, the ministry urged people to be prepared for the virus.
"Your household may be affected soon if it hasn't already. If you have tested positive for Covid-19, you will need to isolate while you recover from the virus.
"Others in your household will need to also isolate with you until the end of your isolation period."
"Ensure you have an appropriate amount of supplies before there's a Covid-19 case in your household. In addition, organise with friends, whānau or neighbours to do contactless drop-offs of food and supplies as needed and/or discuss your medication needs with your local pharmacist ahead of time."
"Being ready for getting Covid-19 is about making sure you and your household have a plan and know what to do."It will mean your whānau and community can help each other if needed."
The Ministry of Health confirmed today that 28 people who were at the protest at Parliament have now tested positive for Covid-19.
Data is not available for the number of cases who required hospital care who were identified as being at the protest.
A spokesperson said these people were thought to be protesters although they had not been interviewed as they would have been prior to the recent changes in case investigation.
"In Phase 3, cases are not routinely interviewed by health officials and are instead asked to fill out a contact tracing form. Only cases that are identified through their interaction with the health system can therefore be identified as having attended the protest.
"The Ministry continues to encourage anyone who attended the protest at Parliament to get tested and isolate at home if they have any cold or flu symptoms, and to get vaccinated and boosted to protect themselves and each other from Covid-19."
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will front the media later this afternoon after Cabinet meets.
Yesterday there were 15,161 new community cases, down on Saturday's total of 18,833. On Friday there were 22,527 cases.
But the number of people in hospital with Covid is on the rise with 618 people in hospital with it yesterday, up from 597 the previous day.
Given the daily case numbers were inaccurate, Jackson said the more worrying numbers were the rising hospital rates especially once it spread more rapidly in older people. "That's the biggest worry, if hospitals get overloaded and sick people just can't get it."
He told RNZ New Zealand was at the stage of the pandemic where it had to be as "pragmatic as possible". For the majority of people who were vaccinated, it was not a severe disease for most people.
It was unlikely case numbers had peaked and the actual number of people infected in the community was probably two to three times more, he said.
Reporting the figures to the nearest thousand would remind people just how inaccurate they were, especially now people were testing at home.
"It could be going up. We just don't know. The numbers just don't help any more."
Jackson said in the future a better solution would be to get pharmacists or other trained people to carry out RATs to ensure every case was reported.
As more and more people were having to isolate, he said New Zealand needed take the most pragmatic approach as possible. This included reducing the isolation period from 10 to seven. "It will mean more cases will slip through, but I think that's practical."
Supermarket staff moving from desk to distribution
As the Omicron wave hits, New World head of marketing Pippa Prain said staff were moving from their desk jobs to help in the distribution centre as more and more staff were having to isolate.
"We just roll up our sleeves and muck-in, we are all one big team."
They had also launched a recruitment drive and were looking for more staff to help out in what was a fluctuating situation.
Prain told AM they would not run out of food. The biggest problem was getting food from the distribution centre out to stores and on shelves.
They were prioritising getting the essentials out to stores so people might see a few gaps on the shelves, she said. Some stores may also be changing their opening hours to give teams more time to restock the shelves.
RATs were available in store at cost this week, but numbers would be limited per customer.
