There have been 62 new community cases of Covid-19 and one further death reported in New Zealand today.
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In a statement, the Ministry said a patient in in their 50s who was admitted to hospital on 11 December has passed away.
"Our thoughts are with their whānau and friends at this sad time."
It is the 50th death in New Zealand of someone with the coronavirus since the pandemic began.
There are now 45 people in hospital with the coronavirus - including two in Waikato and two in Tauranga - with eight in intensive care.
There were also seven cases of the Omicron variant in New Zealand's MIQ system.
Today's new cases were in Auckland (37), Waikato (5), Bay of Plenty (14) and Rotorua (5).
There was also one new case reported in Christchurch today and public health officials are investigating recent travel to Auckland as the source of their infection.
The case travelled from Auckland to Christchurch on Monday 20 December on Air NZ Flight NZ543.
"All passengers on the flight are being treated as close contacts and are required to get tested. Contact tracing is underway to contact all passengers."
All of the Waikato cases are in Te Kūiti, while seven of the 14 new cases in the Western Bay of Plenty today have been linked to existing cases.
There were also 10 cases reported at the border, with travellers from the UK, US, Greece, UAE, Australia, Germany, Kenya and India testing positive.
There were 56 new community cases reported yesterday.
There have now been 10,493 cases in the current outbreak and a total of 13,349 in New Zealand since the pandemic began.
There were 21,338 vaccine doses administered yesterday, including 1413 first doses and 7135 second doses. Hawke's Bay DHB has just 415 doses to go to reach 90 percent fully vaccinated, while Waikato has just 1436 second doses to go.
