There have been 60 new community cases reported in New Zealand today, with a second case of Omicron in the community also confirmed.
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In a statement, the Ministry of Health said there were 44 people in hospital, including seven in ICU. The average age of those in hospital is 54.
Today's community cases were in Northland (1), Auckland (20), Waikato (28), Bay of Plenty (8), Rotorua (1), Tairāwhiti (1) and Canterbury (1).
There were more cases in Waikato than Auckland today, with 24 in Te Kūiti, two in Te Awamutu, one in Ōtorohanga, and one pending location confirmation. The Ministry said 27 of the 28 cases have been linked to previous cases.
"The majority of Te Kūiti cases have been linked to two exposure events with attendees identified as contacts by public health and notified prior to testing positive."
All of the eight new cases in Bay of Plenty today are in Tauranga. Six are linked to previously reported cases, and all cases are isolating at home or in managed accommodation.
The cases in Northland, Rotorua, Tairāwhiti and Canterbury are all close contacts of previous cases.
There were also 11 new cases in managed isolation and an additional six Omicron cases reported among arrivals at the border, taking the total to 78.
Today's MIQ cases came from Australia, Ethiopia, the UK, Singapore and the UAE.
There were 46 new cases of the coronavirus reported in the community yesterday.
There have now been 10,776 cases in the current community outbreak and 13,687 since the pandemic began.
Omicron in the community
The Ministry of Health confirmed yesterday that a recent international arrival completed 10 days of isolation, but did not wait for the final test result before going out into the community, and subsequently tested positive for the Omicron variant.
Last night, DJ Dimension outed himself in a social media post as New Zealand's first community Omicron case. The DJ, Robert Etheridge, had been scheduled to perform at the Rhythm and Alps festival in Wanaka.
Speaking to media this morning, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said he was very disappointed the British DJ did not follow isolation rules.
In today's statement, the Ministry said a second border-related case has been in the community. The case is an Air New Zealand crew member who worked on a flight between Auckland and Sydney on 24 December.
"They were tested for Covid-19 in routine surveillance testing on 27 December. Whole genome sequencing has confirmed the Omicron variant and has also confirmed the case is linked to three other Omicron cases on the same flight."
The case was immediately transferred to a MIQ facility.
The case is fully vaccinated. Eight close contacts have been identified, seven of whom have returned negative test results.
At this stage, there are no known locations of interest.
Vaccination milestones
The Ministry also said that the Canterbury DHB has become the third DHB area to be 95 percent fully vaccinated, joining Auckland DHB and Capital and Coast DHB.
Waikato DHB has reached the 90 percent fully vaccinated milestone.
Yesterday's vaccine doses acorss the country included 1134 first doses; 6627 second doses; 420 third primary doses and 15,747 booster doses.
