There are 5933 new cases of Covid-19 reported in the community today, with ten further deaths.

In a statement, the Ministry of Health said there were 537 people in hospital, with 20 in ICU.

Yesterday saw 13,636 new cases and 30 additional deaths reported, covering a period of two days.

For the first time since the pandemic began, Auckland did not have the highest case numbers in the country yesterday, with its 869 cases eclipsed by those reported in Canterbury (2255), Southern

DHB (1747) and Waikato (1079).

Earlier, Covid-19 modeller David Welch told RNZ that new variants are expected, but unlikely to be game changers like Omicron.

The BA.1 and BA.2 subvariants are both circulating in New Zealand.

Australia reported it's first case of XE, while in Melbourne the subvariant BA.4 or BA.5 (which one is yet to be determined) has been detected in wastewater.

Welch said it's likely the subvariants will cause case numbers to stay at about a thousand a day in New Zealand.