Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is fronting a post-Cabinet press conference at 3pm today.

Foreign affairs looks set to dominate the week, with New Zealand announcing a fresh wave of sanctions against Russia last week as the war in Ukraine escalates. Closer to home, the government is expecting visits for the Indian and Solomon Islands' foreign ministers this week.

Ardern announced a report on the effect of the Government's Healthy Homes Initiative on people's health and wellbeing has been released.

More than 31,000 children, pregnant people and 111,000 of their family members are warmer and healthier thanks to the Healthy Homes Initiative, according to the latest three-year evaluation report.

Ardern said it was known when they came into Government, some housing stock was making people sick. However, she said it was "heartening" to see the impact of the Healthy Homes Initiative.

She said in some cases, the differences made were simply giving people the ability to heat their home.

Asked whether she was confident state homes were compliant, Ardern said not yet but said that was ongoing work. She said her Govt inherited state homes that weren't compliant.

Asked about the Palmerston North hospital death - where a pregnant woman with sepsis died after admission to ICU delayed for several hours - Associate Minister of Health Ayesha Verrall said it was a tragic incident and said we will have to see the result of the Coroner's investigation.

About the culture at the hospital, Verrall said issues of culture and how the escalation of how people who have sepsis are dealt with will be covered in reports.

Healthy Homes Initiative

The Healthy Homes Initiative report showed more than 100,000 interventions – providing education, beds and bedding, curtains, housing relocation, and heating to those who need it most. The Government recently expanded the scheme to cover the whole country by the end of the year.

"It is our belief as a Government that everyone deserves a warm, dry, healthy home," Verrall said.

"Poor housing stock can make people sick and by improving housing conditions, people are healthier and more likely to stay in school or in work, while also relieving pressure on the health system".

"These results support our decision to expand the programme to nationwide coverage. We inherited a programme that was underfunded and narrowly targeted. We've invested $30 million in the initiative and in Budget 22 funded its extension to the whole country.

"We anticipate that this expansion can extend the benefits of the programme to a large number of people across the whole country.

"This is an example of our wellbeing investment working. Programmes like this are improving the health and wellbeing of New Zealanders and are a key component of our plan to make New Zealand the best place in the world to be a child," Verrall said.

Initially, the programme targeted low-income families with children at risk of rheumatic fever, but was expanded to focus on families with children aged up to 5 and pregnant women, and recently rolled-out to the rest of the country.

Associate Minister of Health Aupito William Sio said the Healthy Homes Initiative had made a huge impact on the health and wellbeing of over 31,000 tamariki/hapū māmā and over 111,000 members of their whānau/aiga.

"It's significant that 94 per cent of referrals identify as Māori or Pacific. Many in our communities live in multi-generational households and have multiple health conditions," Sio said.

Speaking to RNZ this morning, Ardern said the government was keeping a "rolling review" of sanctions on Russia and assistance to Ukraine.

Ardern said "every conversation" she has had with Ukrainian representatives stresses "just how much the sanctions matter to them. They see that as the way to continue to put pressure on Russia to end the war.

"So we've kept a rolling review on the sanctions we're placing on individuals who may have influence but also goods and services so that's where we're particularly looking at the moment."

Ardern said more advice on sanctions would be delivered in the next fortnight. She said the Government was having a "finer look" at what it exported and imported with Russia.

She said expelling Russia's ambassador to New Zealand was "still an option", but suggested this was unlikely.

The final of the three cost of living payments has been paid out today.

The payments were intended to help middle-income households with the rising cost of living, but became a political football after a messy rollout from IRD.

On RNZ, Ardern played down the suggestion that the government would make available additional fiscal support for households beyond the current fuel excise and road user charge cut which expires at the end of January.

She said additional support could make inflation worse.

"Certainly what you do in this area can have an inflationary impact," Ardern said, criticising National's tax cut package for likely adding to inflation