Friday December 24

There are 62 new cases of Covid-19 today and a person has died in hospital. 

Of these, 37 are in Auckland, 5 in Waikato, 14 in Bay of Plenty, 5 in Lakes and 1 in Canterbury.  

A person with Covid-19 has died at Auckland's North Shore Hospital. 

The patient, who was in their 50s, was admitted to hospital on December 11.

Public health officials are investigating the Canterbury case's recent travel to Auckland as their source of infection. 

The person travelled from Auckland to Christchurch on December 20, on Air NZ flight NZ543. All passengers on the plane are being treated as close contacts.

There are 45 people currently in hospital, with 8 of those people in intensive care or high dependency units.

The average age of people currently in hospital is 50.

95 percent of New Zealand's eligible population have had the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, and 91 percent have had a second dose.

There have been 4,515,094 vaccine pass downloads, including 26,633 in the last 24 hours.

Hawke's Bay and Waikato district health boards are almost about to hit the 90 percent fully vaccinated mark. Once they hit the mark, 13 district health boards will be at 90 percent fully vaccinated or higher. 

Click here for a list of updated locations of interest.

The Ministry of Health will not be releasing a Covid-19 update on December 25, January 1 and January 8.

Top image: A doctor in a protective suit taking a nasal swab from a person to test for coronavirus. Photo: iStock.

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