There are 20,087 new community cases of Covid-19 and a further 11 Covid-related deaths - taking New Zealand past a grim milestone since the pandemic began. 

Today's Covid-related deaths take NZ's toll of publicly reported deaths to 210 and and the seven-day rolling average of reported deaths to nine. 

There are 960 people in hospital with the virus, including 31 in intensive care, said the Ministry of Health. 

One of the people whose death was reported today was in their 30s, one person was in their 60s, one in their 70s, four in their 80s and four in their 90s. 

More than half a million cases of the virus have now been reported since the pandemic hit our shores in 2020 and yesterday the country saw the highest number of hospitalisations yet. 

However, hospitalisations were expected to start to drop this week. 

The Ministry of Health is due to release a statement with the latest figures relating to the Omicron outbreak shortly after 1pm today. 

The numbers come after the Government announced it was scrapping the limit on outdoor gatherings from Friday and signalled the end of vaccine pass use and mandates for some industries from next month. 

The number of people allowed to gather inside increases from 100 to 200 under the changes to the red light traffic setting. 

Masks will continue to be used, but today's move means outdoor concerts, sports and other outdoor events would be able to resume under the red setting. 

The traffic light changes will kick in from this Friday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said. 

Yesterday, there were 15 deaths bringing the total number of deaths so far in New Zealand to 199. 

There were 1016 people fighting the virus in hospital with 25 in ICU across the country. 

Of the 15 people who died with Covid, nine were from Auckland, three from Waikato, and three were from Wellington. 

One of these people was in their 50s, three in their 60s, six in their 70s, and five were in their 80s. 

These deaths took the total number of publicly reported Covid-related deaths to 199 and the seven-day rolling average of reported deaths to 10. 

Director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said yesterday that those numbers confirmed Covid case numbers had passed the peak in metropolitan Auckland and were decreasing in all three DHBs. 

The analysis also showed increases across the rest of the country were slowing. Case numbers were still "very much on the increase" in the South Island, however. 

Hospitalisations were levelling off in the north, Bloomfield said. They were expected to drop this week. 

In the Delta outbreak the hospitalisation rate was 8 per cent, while in Auckland for Omicron it was 0.9 per cent. 

People were on average staying five days in ICU. Early in the outbreak were younger people often treated and discharged overnight, but this had changed. 

New admissions in the north each day were dropping but people were sicker and requiring greater care, keeping the number in hospital steady. 

There had been decreases in positivity rates at hospitals and this showed the lesser severity of the variant but also impact of vaccines, Bloomfield said yesterday. 

On the deaths being recorded, Bloomfield said Omicron was not a trivial illness. 

Flu had about 500-600 deaths a year. At 10 deaths a day, Bloomfield said this was clearly more deadly than flu. Part of that was it was much more transmissible. 

He urged people to do all they could to reduce the prevalence of the virus, and getting vaccinated was one of the most important things.