There are 5169 new cases of Covid-19 today and health officials have today reported a further 18 Covid-related deaths.

There are 599 people in hospital, including 11 people in intensive care.

The Prime Minister has indicated that the traffic light framework will be reviewed after winter, but for the time being, the country remains at orange due to the hundreds of patients in hospital with Covid and other seasonal illnesses.

Covid-19 Response Minister Ayesha Verrall announced yesterday that the country will stay in the orange traffic light setting through winter, noting while case numbers were declining there was "still high" pressure on the health system due to Covid-19 and other illnesses.

"There's still significant pressure on hospitals from winter illnesses, so our current measures have an ongoing role to play in reducing the number of Covid-19 cases and hospitalisations," said Verrall.

"The health system usually sees elevated pressure through September, so we would be hoping to see some sustained reductions in both cases and hospitalisations then.

"Our response to Omicron is moving in the right direction, but loosening settings before we are completely on top of it risk infections going up again. We just need to stay the course a little longer."

There will be no changes to case isolation and household contact quarantine requirements and the next review setting will be in September.

Ardern said as cases came down further they were hoping to in a month be "in a different position".

"It is clear that masks are still making a big difference.

"It is clear that isolation of cases still matters enormously and that's why orange remains important.

"In the future though we've also said that we'll continue to look at whether or not the traffic light system still continues to provide the framework we need.

"The time and place to do that will be as we come out of winter."

Meanwhile, RNZ reported that experts are calling for an investigation into the deaths of 88 people after they died at home with Covid-19.

On average, four people a week have been dying from the virus in their homes since the Omicron outbreak hit New Zealand, according to Te Whatu Ora/Health New Zealand figures released to RNZ.

The new health agency did not respond to questions about the circumstances of each death, prompting calls from doctors for insights into the data.

The vast majority of people who died at home - 92 per cent - were over the age of 60. Just over half were classified as European/Other, with Māori accounting for 18 per cent and Pasifika 19 per cent, according to data between 1 March and 31 July.

Just over a fifth (22 per cent) were unvaccinated, 25 per cent were fully vaccinated and 49 per cent were boosted. (Less than 6 per cent of the population, who are old enough to be vaccinated, are unvaccinated.)

University of Otago public health professor and epidemiologist Michael Baker said each home death needed to be investigated by health authorities so they could learn from them.

"If we are wanting to lower deaths from Covid-19 infection we need to know a lot more about the circumstances of these deaths.

"The context is really important. Someone who's terminally ill and dying in a hospice and has Covid-19, that's very different from an otherwise healthy person dying from Covid where that death could have been avoided if they'd had access to urgent care and antiviral treatment, for instance.

"These are data that need to be collected and analysed to see if some of these deaths can and should be prevented."