There are 7050 new community cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand today.

And the Ministry of Health has today reported a further 24 Covid-related deaths.

There are 361 people in hospital with the virus, including 14 in intensive care.

Of today's deaths, 12 people died in the past four days while the other 12 have died since April 25, officials say.

Today's reported deaths take the total number of publicly reported deaths with Covid-19 to 1267.

The seven-day rolling average of reported deaths is 12.

Three people were in their 50s, two in their 60s, five in 70s; seven in their 80s and seven were aged over 90.

Ten were women and 14 were men.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health's chief science adviser Dr Ian Town has provided detail on surveillance measures used for monitoring new variants of Covid-19 in New Zealand.

Town says the international situation for Covid-19 is of further waves of infection "and we are seeing similar trends in New Zealand".

"There is a small chance that [NZ will experience] a more aggressive variant," Town said.

"We are currently in the orange setting which is about protection and surveillance. The director-general has assessed this as orange as appropriate and we will continue to review that," Town said,

"We are still seeing high numbers of cases," he said.

Town said there was concern among the medical fraternity that there may be long-term effects on organ systems from Covid "but we don't have New Zealand data on that yet".

"We are developing guidelines (for long Covid) and we hope to release those in July," Town said.

The ministry's chief testing advisor Kirsten Beynon said prioritising the health of all NZers was critical.

"We continue to survey the sickest in our hospital, our waterways and those who are testing positive, she said, and it enables us to track how Covid is spreading. We use a variety of information and testing tools to provide a better understanding of Covid and variants that are circulating," she said.

Many countries had stopped testing at our borders, while New Zealand continued to test people at our borders twice.

About a third of people at the border were getting PCR tested, Beynon said.

"Currently we are building on our genome testing to make sure information is readily available for all New Zealanders," Beynon said.

The ministry's lead science advisor Dr Fiona Callaghan said NZ's surveillance system was part of an international effort.

At the border, officials were focused on catching new variants, Callaghan said.

In hospitals, the goal was to check which patients had Covid and which patients had more severe diseases, Callaghan said.

BA2 is the dominant variant in New Zealand. The BA1 variant had previously been the dominant strain in the country.

"Wastewater testing has been crucial to our monitoring, now it's used to measures of virus in the community and information of the overall trend whether the outbreak is growing or slowing," Callaghan said.

"Obviously Covid is not going away. It's a continual challenge for us," Town said.

"We are continuing responding and adapting to new information."

"Winter is always busy for our health providers and we are already seeing increased pressure and it may get worse," Town said.

NZ might see outbreaks of measles and whooping cough as immunities might be low, he said.

"We have extended the eligibility for the free flu vaccinations but there has been a supply issue so making it more available may not have been possible this year," Town said.

"Vaccination is the best protection.

"If you are unwell it's important to stay home."

He encouraged people who test positive for Covid-19 to be vigilant in uploading that information.

"Anyone with symptoms of Covid within 90 days of testing positive should be talking to their doctor," Town said.

Callaghan said the number of RATs that get reported are lower than the number of Covid community cases, which was why wastewater testing was important.

Town said monkeypox had been the subject of active discussion amongst NZ science teams and public health colleagues.

"We are following those international developments really closely.

"As you probably know one of the larger outbreaks has occurred in Britan with about 300 cases so far.

"We are aware cases have been detected in Australia and you may recall that Cabinet yesterday decided to make it a notifiable diseases so if we do detect cases here, we think our normal case identification, contact tracing and isolation will be the best first approach to stop it spreading more rapidly," Town said.

When asked if there was enough capacity in the system to cope with monkeypox, Town said "if the numbers stay relatively low as they have down in Australia and the UK, then absolutely".

The seven-day rolling average of community case numbers today is 6035. Last Wednesday it was 6893.

Today's new cases are in Northland (209), Auckland (1962), Waikato (508), Bay of Plenty (271), Lakes (116), Hawke's Bay (201), MidCentral (314), Whanganui (106), Taranaki (204), Tairāwhiti (30), Wairarapa (64), Capital and Coast (620), Hutt Valley (325), Nelson Marlborough (280), Canterbury (1,075), South Canterbury (93), Southern (587), West Coast (82), unknown (3).

In total, there are 42,233 cases active in the community.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been 1,207,717 Covid cases in New Zealand.

The average age of those in hospital with the virus is 61.

The ministry is reporting 70 new imported cases.

In the last 24 hours, 2825 PCR tests and 13,413 rapid antigen tests were processed.

Yesterday, 32 first doses, 47 second doses, 33 third primary doses, 955 booster doses, 52 paediatric first doses and 274 paediatric second doses of the vaccine were administered.

Last Friday, the ministry reported four cases of BA.5 and one case of BA.4 - the first time each of the Omicron subvariants have been detected in the community without a clear link to the border.

There have since been no further reports of more of these variants in the community.

Epidemiologist Michael Baker said the new variants were likely to lead to a second Omicron wave.

Baker said the variants were more infectious and had caused new waves overseas.

Multiple cases of the BA.2.12.1 Omicron subvariant have also been detected in the community.

Meanwhile, as Covid and winter illnesses hit, an Auckland primary school has reverted back to mask wearing.

This week, Grey Lynn Primary School asked all students in Year 4 and up to wear masks indoors, and are encouraging younger students to mask up also.

A newsletter from the board of trustees said five staff had tested positive for Covid-19 in the past fortnight, and many students were also isolating.

Grey Lynn's board chairman Stewart Reynolds told the Herald the decision was about Covid and increasing rates of other winter illnesses.

"It's all about keeping the school open as long as possible, keeping the children learning, seeing them happy. Because they love being back."

Today, Health Minister Andrew Little announced that the Government is introducing a bill to amend legislation so hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people can access a second Covid-19 booster.

Late last month, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins announced plans to roll out a second booster dose to people who were at high risk of getting very sick from Covid-19 but signalled that legislative changes were needed.

Little said the bill would go to the Health select committee and be reported back on June 20, and would be considered by the House again that week.

The booster was voluntary and the amendment would allow all vaccinators to administer the dose without a prescription.