Just 14 new cases in community

There were 14 new community cases of Covid-19 yesterday.

In addition, there are nine new cases at the border and 34 people in hospital with the virus.

It is the lowest number of daily cases reported since September 28.

The Ministry of Health said the low number of cases was ‘‘welcome news, particularly with increasing test numbers’’.

However, it remained ‘‘likely that there will be a rise again in coming days’’, it said.

There were new community cases in Northland (two), Auckland (nine), Waikato (two), and Wellington (one). The ministry also announced two new cases in the Canterbury region, which were notified after the daily cut-off time. Those would officially be added to today’s numbers, it said.

One was in South Canterbury. It remained under investigation, but shared a location of interest with a previously reported case, the ministry said.

The second case, in Canterbury, also remained under investigation for any link to previously reported cases.

Of the 34 people in hospital with Covid-19 yesterday, two were in intensive care or high dependency care units – one in Middlemore and one in Tauranga, the ministry said.