Wellington, Mar 16 (IANS): New Zealand reported 19,542 new community cases of Covid on Wednesday, said the Ministry of Health in a statement.
The ministry also reported 24 deaths, bringing the total number of publicly reported deaths to 141, and 35 new cases detected at the country's border, Xinhua news agency reported.
There were 971 Covid patients in New Zealand hospitals, including 21 people in intensive care units or high dependency units.
The country has reported 417,825 confirmed cases of Covid since the beginning of the pandemic.
New Zealand is currently at the highest Red settings under the Covid Protection Framework. At Red settings, face masks become mandatory in many indoor environments and gatherings are limited to 100 people.