The Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield will host today's media briefing to provide updates on the response to the Omicron outbreak.

He will be joined via Zoom by Professor Peter McIntyre of the Department of Women's and Children's Health at the University of Otago.

The pair are expected to be live from 1pm.

Tune into the livestream above to hear the latest.

On Wednesday, the Ministry of Health reported 15,918 community new cases, 817 hospitalisations and 14 deaths.

There were 987 cases in the Bay of Plenty and 438 in the Lakes district.

"It's encouraging to see case numbers continuing to decline. This supports the trend we are seeing across the seven day rolling average," says a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health.

"The seven day rolling average is 14,969; this compares with the seven day rolling average of cases as at last Wednesday of 17,111."