There are five deaths and 8270 new Covid cases in the community reported today.

One death was from the Auckland region, one was from Waikato, two were from MidCentral and one was from Tairāwhiti, the Ministry of Health said in today's update.

One was aged in their 70s, three were in their 80s, and one was over 90.

The deaths reported today takes New Zealand's total to 602 since the pandemic began.

There are 305 people in hospital and seven people in ICU in Northern region hospitals. The ministry said data for other regions was not available.

The locations of today's 8270 community cases is: Northland (364), Waitematā (708), Auckland (597), Counties Manukau (537), Waikato (641), Bay of Plenty (360), Lakes (149), Hawke's Bay (282), MidCentral (317), Whanganui (118), Taranaki (277), Tairāwhiti (61), Wairarapa (85), Capital and Coast (524), Hutt Valley (265), Nelson Marlborough (265), Canterbury (1,445), South Canterbury (190), Southern (989) and the West Coast (87).

The location of nine cases is unknown.

The ministry said the number of reported community cases was expected to continue to fluctuate day to day, but the overall trend remained a reduction in reported cases.

The vaccination statuses of cases hospitalised in the Northern region (excluding emergency departments) are:
• Unvaccinated or not eligible: 51 cases / 17.35 per cent
• Partially immunised <7 days from second dose or have only received one dose: 8 cases / 2.72 per cent
• Double vaccinated at least seven days before being reported as a case: 72 cases / 24.49 per cent
• Received booster at least seven days before being reported as a case: 150 cases / 51.02 per cent
• Unknown: 13 cases / 4.42 per cent

There are currently 53,066 active community cases, which are cases that were identified in the past seven days that have not yet recovered.

Today, the seven-day rolling average of cases is 7585. Last Tuesday it was 9731.

A total of 38 Covid cases have been detected at the border.

Meanwhile Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's first overseas trip in over two years has already hit a snag - with three of the 50-strong delegation testing positive for Covid following a PCR test last night.

Yesterday 6242 new cases were reported in the community and 11 people died with the virus - taking the total tally of reported deaths to 597.

The seven-day rolling average of case numbers continues to decline - yesterday's was 7986, about 2000 fewer than what it was last Monday.

This trajectory comes as a new Omicron subvariant has been detected in New South Wales.

Scientists say it's only a matter of time before XE makes its way to New Zealand.

The variant was taken into the state by an overseas traveller.

The state was also the first to report a case of another recombinant strain dubbed Deltacron.

First discovered in the UK in mid-January, XE is a hybrid of the original Omicron subtype BA.1 and the faster-spreading, now-dominant BA.2.

Amid concern XE could be more transmissible, director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said that, if it arrived here, officials would need to look at its characteristics and whether stricter rules were needed to keep case numbers down.

However, one expert isn't convinced XE poses our next big Covid-19 threat.

University of Auckland computational biologist Dr David Welch said it now appeared the subtype didn't have the legs to outcompete BA.2.

"The evidence for it having any significant transmission advantage isn't there still – and the latest estimates show that it could be 10 per cent under BA.2," Welch said.

"Anything that's going to survive at all has to be at least equal to BA.2."

Welch said other potentially high-spreading sub-variants like Delta AY.4.2 had attracted concern when they popped up.

"But AY.4.2 didn't really seem to take off anywhere outside the UK. I'd put XE in the same basket," he said.

"Perhaps it has a localised advantage, but it's certainly not the next Delta or Omicron."