NZ Covid-19: 26 deaths reported, 8728 new cases

There are 8728 new Covid-19 community cases in New Zealand, the Ministry of Health has announced on Friday.

Covid-19 vaccination centre in The Cloud, Auckland. (Source: 1News)

The numbers were reported over the last 24 hours.

There are 759 people in hospital with the virus, eight fewer than Thursday.

Thirteen people are in an intensive care or high dependency unit, seven fewer than 24 hours ago.

The average age of those in hospital with Covid-19 remains at 66.

The seven-day rolling average of Covid hospitalisations is 764, up on 700 a week ago, but down slightly on 766 24 hours ago.

Twenty-six more people with the virus have died. The deaths had occurred since April 26.

On Thursday, 9953 community cases were announced.