WELLINGTON, March 14 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand reported 15,540 new community cases of COVID-19 on Monday, said the Ministry of Health in a statement.
The ministry also reported two deaths with COVID-19, both were women aged over 70 years. The total number of publicly reported COVID-19 related deaths to date is now 115, it said.
Among the infections reported on Monday, 4,730 cases were in the biggest city Auckland, where reported case numbers have fallen steadily last week from just under 10,000 cases on Tuesday to just over 4,500 on Sunday, said the ministry.
However, the epidemic continues to spread across New Zealand, such as the capital city Wellington and the largest city in South Island Christchurch.
In addition, 22 new cases of COVID-19 were detected at the New Zealand border, said the ministry.
There were 952 COVID-19 patients in New Zealand hospitals, including 19 people in intensive care units or high dependency units.
The country has reported 376,676 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.
New Zealand is currently at the highest Red settings under the COVID-19 Protection Framework. At Red settings, face masks become mandatory in many indoor environments and gatherings are limited to 100 people. ■