New Zealand reports 14,633 new community cases of Covid

Wellington, Feb 28 (IANS) New Zealand recorded 14,633 new community cases of Covid on Monday, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

More than 9,000 cases of the infection were reported in Auckland. In addition, 23 new cases were detected at the New Zealand border.

Currently 344 patients in the country are being treated in hospitals for the virus, with five of them being in intensive care units, Xinhua news agency reported.

New Zealand reported 100,352 confirmed cases of Covid since the beginning of the pandemic, including 82,105 active community cases which have been identified in the past 21 days and not yet classified as recovered, the ministry said.

The country is at the highest Red settings under its Covid-19 Protection Framework. At Red settings, face masks become mandatory in many indoor environments and gatherings are limited to 100 people.