Wellington, Dec 12 (TIWN) New Zealand recorded 40,098 new community cases of Covid-19 and 35 more deaths from the pandemic over the past week, the country's Ministry of Health said on Monday.

With the fresh cases, New Zealand has reported 2,019,685 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 2,257 Covid-19-related deaths since the pandemic hit the country in early 2020, the ministry said.  Currently, 514 Covid-19 patients are being treated in hospitals in the country, including 14 in intensive care units or high dependency units, according to official data.