A file image of Covid-19 under an electron microscope. [Source: 1News]

There are 6440 new Covid-19 community cases in New Zealand, the Ministry of Health has announced on Wednesday.

The numbers were reported over the last 24 hours.

704 people are in hospital with the virus, 34 less than Tuesday.

Eleven people are in intensive care or a high dependency unit, four less than Tuesday.

The average age of those in hospital with Covid-19 is 65.

The seven-day rolling average of Covid hospitalisations is 772, down from 782 this time last week.

28 more people with the virus have died, the ministry is reporting today.

Of the 28 people who have died, eight were from the Auckland region, two were from Waikato, two were from Lakes, one was from Tairāwhiti, four were from Hawke’s Bay, one was from Taranaki, four were from the Wellington region, one was from Nelson Marlborough, two were from Canterbury, three were from Southern.

One was in their 40s, one was in their 50s, two were in their 60s, eight were in their 70s, ten were in their 80s and six were aged over 90.

Of these people, 16 were women and 12 were men.

The seven-day rolling average of deaths confirmed as attributable to Covid-19 is 22.

Wednesday’s positive cases, detected through rapid antigen tests (RATs) and PCR tests, are located in Auckland (636), Bay of Plenty (271), Canterbury (920), Capital and Coast (468), Counties Manukau (649), Hawke’s Bay (171), Hutt Valley (248), Lakes (151), MidCentral (232), Nelson Marlborough (180), Northland (170), South Canterbury (113), Southern (527), Tairāwhiti (45), Taranaki (154), Waikato (486), Wairarapa (75), Waitematā (789), the West Coast (49) and Whanganui (100).

The location of six new community cases is unknown.

There have been 270 new Covid-19 cases at the border in the last 24 hours.

The seven-day rolling average of cases is 6355.

A total of 3858 PCR tests were carried out in the last 24 hours, while 12,836 RAT test results were reported.

The number of active community cases is 44,462. They were identified in the past seven days but have not yet been classified as recovered.

On Tuesday there were 7113 new Covid-19 cases in New Zealand.