There are 15,540 new community cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand, the Ministry of Health reported today.

Two Covid-related deaths have also been reported and there are 952 people in hospital, including 19 in intensive care.

Of the two Covid-related deaths, one was in Waikato and one was in Canterbury. Both people were women aged over 70 years.

The total number of publicly reported Covid-19 related deaths to date is now 115.

"Our thoughts and sympathies are with the whānau and friends of all those who have died," the ministry said in a statement.

Of the 15,540 community cases reported today, 15,353 were found using rapid antigen tests (RATs) and 209 were identified via PCR testing.

Today's new cases are in Northland (482), Auckland (4,730), Waikato (1,532), Bay of Plenty (1,023), Lakes (457), Hawke's Bay (680), MidCentral (528), Whanganui (162), Taranaki (343), Tairāwhiti (262), Wairarapa (167), Capital and Coast (1,191), Hutt Valley (749), Nelson Marlborough (373), Canterbury (1,896), South Canterbury (130), Southern (795) and the West Coast (31).

The location of nine of the cases is unknown.

There are 190,321 active community cases. "Active cases" are cases that were identified in the past 10 days and are not yet classified as recovered.

The seven-day rolling average of community cases is 19,566.

Meanwhile, 22 Covid-19 cases have been detected at the border.

There are 952 people in hospital with Covid-19 across North Shore (185), Middlemore (210), Auckland (210), Waikato (78), Bay of Plenty (34), Lakes (13), Tairāwhiti (3), Hawke's Bay (23), Taranaki (9), MidCentral (20), Whanganui (3), Hutt Valley (23), Capital and Coast (61), Wairarapa (7), Nelson Marlborough (9), Canterbury (29) and the Southern region (12).

The average age of those in hospital is 58.

According to the ministry, just over 3 per cent of people aged 12 and over in the Northern region (Auckland and Northland) have had no doses of the vaccine. However, of those in this age group in Northland and Auckland hospitals with Covid-19 whose vaccination status is recorded, 15 per cent have had no doses of the vaccine and are five times over-represented in our hospitalisation figures.

The importance of getting boosted cannot be under-estimated, the ministry said.

"Getting vaccinated and boosted will help reduce your risk of severe Covid-19 illness and could save your life.

"Getting boosted will not only reduce your risk of severe illness, but it will also help to protect our most vulnerable communities."

Meanwhile, 96.7 per cent of the eligible population has had their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, 95.3 per cent have had two and 72.7 per cent of those due their booster have had it.

For eligible Māori, aged 12 and older, 91.2 per cent have had their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, 87.9 per cent have had two and 59.3 per cent of those eligible have been boosted.

For Pacific Peoples, aged 12 and older, 98.2 per cent have had one dose, 96.3 per cent have been double dosed and 59.7 per cent of those eligible have been boosted.

Of eligible children aged 5-11, 53.3 per cent have had one dose of vaccine and 1.7 per cent have had two.

For Māori children aged 5-11 years, 34 per cent have had one dose and 1.1 per cent have had two.

For Pacific children in this age group, 46.1 per cent have had one dose and 1.7 per cent have had two.

In the last 24 hours, 1762 PCR tests and 34,045 RATs have been processed. The seven-day rolling average (to March 12) for PCR tests is 3948.

In the last seven days, 14.8m RATs were dispatched.

Schools hit hard

Meanwhile, almost three quarters of schools and early learning centres across the country are grappling with Covid-19 cases, according to the latest update from the Ministry of Health.

The proportion is even higher in Auckland, where 86 per cent of schools are handling cases.

Primary schools are the worst hit, with 646 across the country dealing with Covid-19 cases, compared with 173 secondary schools and 57 intermediate schools.

Just over 470 early learning centres have also been hit by Covid-19.

"Schools/kura and early learning services (ELS) have layers of preventative measures in place to protect teachers/support staff , students and children. Public health advice has remained consistent throughout the Covid-19 response that school/kura environments are a lower risk for transmission of Covid-19. We know that the more layers of protection in place (eg, good hygiene practices, handwashing, ventilation, cleaning and disinfecting high touch areas regularly etc.), the harder it is for the virus to be transmitted", Sean Teddy, Hautū of Operations and Integration/Te Pae Aronui at the Ministry of Education said.

More than 46,000 Covid-19 cases have been linked to schools in the past 10 days, the Ministry of Education said.

Yesterday's numbers

Yesterday there were 14,494 new cases in the community, significantly less than Saturday's 18,699.

Twenty-two new cases were also found at the border.

The fall in cases has been most noticeable in Auckland - on March 8 the city had recorded just under 10,000 cases and yesterday there were just 4509.

Despite this, New Zealand did record its deadliest day of the pandemic on Sunday - there were eight Covid-related deaths.

That brings the total number of Covid-related deaths in the pandemic to 113.

In hospital, 896 people were battling with the virus including 18 who were in ICU or HDU.

Hauora Tairāwhiti (Gisborne) has acknowledged a decline in case numbers across the region as it recorded 262 new cases today - down from yesterday's 288 and Saturday's 377.

"This means our hard work is paying off. We could be past our Omicron peak which means cases will continue to decrease, but we need to keep working hard to slow the spread, vaccinating our community and testing if symptoms appear," a spokesperson said.

Later this week Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is expected to make a border announcement on the date for tourists to come to New Zealand being bought forward.

Under the government's initial plan, tourists would be able to return in the final phase by October.

It is now expected to be even earlier than the middle of the year.

Over the weekend, working holiday visa holders started to return and they were part of the workforce that would help support tourists, Ardern said.

Meanwhile, experts are increasingly sounding the alarm about Long Covid - the catch-all term for a range of symptoms that can arise weeks or months after a person is infected with the virus.

Those symptoms can affect even people whose original illness was mild. While it's too early to know whether Omicron's Long Covid tail will be similar to previous strains of the virus, medical experts say infections should not be treated as trivial.

People should still avoid getting infected if possible and take time to recover if they do get sick.