There are 7061 new community cases of Covid in the community today.

The Ministry of Health reported a further five Covid-related deaths.

Of the five deaths reported today, three people were from the Southern region, one person was from Auckland and one person was from Bay of Plenty.

One person was in their 50s, one person was in their 70s, and three were aged over 90, the ministry said in today's update.

There are 415 people in hospital with the virus, including 11 in intensive care.

The patients in hospital are in Northland (nine), Waitematā (49), Counties Manukau (49), Auckland (87), Waikato (30), Bay of Plenty (10), Lakes (four), Hawke's Bay (17), Taranaki (14), Whanganui (one), MidCentral (21), Wairarapa (one), Hutt Valley (seven), Capital and Coast (19), Nelson Marlborough (eight), Canterbury (60), South Canterbury (five), West Coast (one) and the Southern (23) region.

The seven-day rolling average of community case numbers is 7702, while last Monday it was 7479.

The locations of today's 7061 new cases are Northland: (205), Auckland (2413), Waikato (551), Bay of Plenty (249), Lakes (121), Hawke's Bay (216), MidCentral (234), Whanganui (93), Taranaki (194), Tairāwhiti (57), Wairarapa (74), Capital and Coast (509), Hutt Valley (177), Nelson Marlborough (223), Canterbury (1005), South Canterbury (117), Southern (568) and the West Coast (52).

From today, border cases will be classified as "imported cases," the ministry said.

The change in terminology reflected that although these cases have arrived from overseas, most will be isolating in the community in New Zealand.

There were 47 new imported cases reported today.

There are currently 53,893 active community cases in New Zealand.

The total number of publicly reported deaths with Covid-19 to 978 and the seven-day rolling average of reported deaths is 17.

Meanwhile Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern continues to isolating at home after testing positive on Saturday but is so far only experiencing moderate symptoms and is "doing OK".

Housing Minister Megan Woods, who filled in for Ardern's media slots this morning, told AM the Prime Minister was "doing okay".

"As she described on Saturday, she's got moderate symptoms but like anyone else with Covid she needs to take this a day at a time and she needs to rest up."

She said Ardern was gutted though to not be in Parliament for the big week ahead.

"Obviously she's gutted not to be here. It's a really big week here in parliament [with] the Budget and the Emissions Reduction Plan and we are gutted not to have her here."

Yesterday there were 5745 new cases in the community and 15 people were reported to have died with the virus.

A large proportion of these cases were in Auckland, with 1925 reported.

There were 384 people in hospital including eight in intensive care.

The number of publicly reported deaths of people with Covid is now 973.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been 1,039,575 cases in New Zealand.

Yesterday's seven-day rolling average was up again, it came in at 7608 compared to last Sunday's 7510.

The Ministry of Health said yesterday's figures were a reminder to stay vigilant.

This comes after Ardern was sent to home isolation last week when her partner Clarke Gayford contracted the virus, and on Saturday she herself tested positive.

Their daughter Neve also tested positive on Wednesday.

Housing Minister Megan Woods, who filled in for Ardern's media slots this morning, told AM that Ardern was "doing okay".

"As she described on Saturday, she's got moderate symptoms but like anyone else with Covid she needs to take this a day at a time and she needs to rest up."

She said Ardern was gutted though to not be in Parliament for the big week ahead.

"Obviously she's gutted not to be here. It's a really big week here in parliament [with] the Budget and the Emissions Reduction Plan and we are gutted not to have her here."

Meanwhile, director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield warned on Friday that only half of the country's Covid infections are likely being reported.

The country had probably reached the low point for cases and hospitalisations from this outbreak, and could be on the way back up, he said.

In Auckland, cases have jumped 50 per cent in a few weeks, which scientists say could signal the start of a national climb to a new Covid-19 normal.

Daily cases peaked in Auckland in early March at 13,252 before the combined seven-day rolling average across Auckland's three district health boards fell below 1600 a month ago.

But at the start of this week, the daily average was close to 2500, and it could top 3000 in coming weeks as the virus continued working its way through communities, said Covid-19 modeller Professor Michael Plank.

Auckland has previously been identified as the place to watch, as its outbreak was weeks ahead of the rest of the country after Omicron was detected in the community in January.

"Auckland's the place to look [first] really - the equilibrium's starting to shift towards case numbers rising", epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker said late last month, as infection rates began trending up.