By RNZ.co.nz and is republished with permission.
There are 25 new cases of Covid-19 in the community today, including eight confirmed cases of the Omicron variant.
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There are 13 new community cases in Auckland, four in Waikato, four in Northland, two in Nelson Tasman, one in Rotorua 1 and one in Manawatū.
To date, there are 19 community cases of Covid-19 associated with the January Omicron Cluster, all are in isolation, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
“Of these cases, today we are reporting eight – two are in the Nelson/Tasman region and are contacts of existing cases, five cases are in Auckland linked to one of the reported family events, and there is an additional case in Palmerston North, a household contact who was already isolating and linked to the previously reported Palmerston North Omicron case.
“The number of cases and contacts are expected to grow given the highly transmissible nature of Omicron and as we learn more from case interviews.”
There are also 50 new cases in managed isolation today.
There are 10 cases of Covid-19 in hospital today – five in North Shore, two in Auckland, one in Middlemore, one in Rotorua and one in Northland. There are no cases in ICU or HDU.
On vaccinations, 21,318 booster doses and 6399 paediatric doses were given yesterday. There were 10,061 tests in the past 24 hours.
From now, unlinked positive cases of Covid-19 in the community will get priority for whole genome sequencing, the ministry said.
These samples will be treated as urgent and tested within 12-24 hours of being received by the laboratory.
Previously, sequencing Covid-19 in international arrivals was the priority.
Yesterday health officials announced there were 24 new community cases of Covid-19 in the community, and 47 new cases in managed isolation and quarantine facilities.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had also announced that the whole country would be moving into the red traffic light setting at 11.59pm last night.
