The Ministry of Health has recorded one COVID-related death and 18 coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours.
Another five cases of the highly-infectious Omicron variant have also been found at the border.
In a statement on Tuesday, the health ministry said a woman in her 70s with COVID-19 had died at Auckland's Middlemore Hospital.
"The family has requested that no further details be released and, out of respect for those wishes, we will be making no further comment at this time.
"Our thoughts and condolences are with the patient's family and friends at this deeply sad time."
The ministry said 54 people are currently in hospital with COVID-19 - eight of whom are in intensive care.
There are 1334 active cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand.
Of the 18 cases in the past day, 13 were detected in Auckland while the rest were found in Waikato (3) and one each in Bay of Plenty and Lakes. Testing data shows 7540 people received PCR swabs in the past 24 hours - an increase on Monday's 5716 tests but still well below the seven-day rolling average of 14,890.
"As yesterday was a statutory holiday, testing number remain lower than usual as expected," the health ministry said.
Managed isolation testing data shows 16 COVID-19 cases have been detected at the border in the past day - five of which were Omicron.
The Omicron variant, first identified in South Africa, continues to run rampant across the world but has yet to leak into New Zealand's community.
COVID-19 infections have soared wherever the highly infectious variant has found a foothold, including in Australia and the UK, triggering new record numbers of cases.
Omicron is becoming dominant in much of Europe including in Britain, where new daily infections have soared beyond 100,000.
In its statement, the health ministry also confirmed Waitematā District Health Board is just over 100 doses shy from 90 percent of its Māori population having had one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
