Covid-19: Fifteen new Omicron cases in the community

Fifteen new community Omicron Covid-19 cases have been detected in Auckland, Taranaki and Nelson-Marlborough.

The Ministry of Health gave the update in a written statement on Wednesday afternoon.

To date, there have been 56 community cases confirmed as Omicron through whole genome sequencing, or are suspected Omicron cases because they have an identified link to a confirmed Omicron case.

Whole genome sequencing is under way for all suspected Omicron cases to confirm the variant.

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This included 44 cases linked, directly or indirectly, to a family event and other associated events in Auckland on the weekend of January 15 and 16.

In addition, there is a total of 12 cases linked to the three border workers reported earlier this month with confirmed or suspected Omicron, an increase of six.

Including the border workers themselves, there are now eight cases associated with the MIQ border worker first reported on January 16, and three associated with the Auckland airport worker first reported on January 21.

There have been no additional cases linked to the Auckland airport worker first reported on January 19.

A case in Taranaki has been linked to the January Omicron cluster – a person who was on the same flight as an infected air steward. They had been isolating since being identified as a close contact.

Their close contacts identified to date are in isolation and being tested.

The ministry also advised an early childhood centre in Tauranga has been linked to a suspected Omicron case, first reported on Tuesday.

The case was present at the BestStart Pyes Pa on January 19 and was likely infectious at the time.

All those at the childhood centre at the time were being treated as close contacts, being asked to isolate, and be tested immediately.

Toi Te Ora Public Health is working with the Ministry of Education to establish a clear view on who was present at the centre on the day and is in the process of contacting those people.

The ministry also reported 36 new cases at the border, and 23 new community cases overall.

There were new community cases of the Delta variant in Northland (one), Auckland (12), Waikato (three), Lakes (five), and Capital & Coast (one) and Nelson-Marlborough (one).

Six people were in hospital with Covid-19 on Wednesday, none of whom were in an intensive care or high-dependency care unit.

Four were in hospitals in Auckland, and two were in hospital in Rotorua.

The one new case in Northland was linked to a known case.

Of the three cases in Waikato, the first was linked and investigations were under way to determine for the second. A third normally lives in Waikato, but was tested in Rotorua.

There were five new cases in Rotorua – three linked to previously reported cases, and two under investigation.

There was one new case to report in the Wellington region, and investigations were under way to determine how it is linked.

A further two cases in Nelson-Marlborough were detected on Wednesday morning, and were being treated as suspected Omicron.

Public health teams were managing 5686 active contacts; 80 per cent had been contacted by contact tracers, and 79 per cent had returned at least one test result.

There were 27,925 Covid swabs processed across the country in the past 24 hours, including 3279 in Auckland.

This was up on the national seven-day rolling average of 15,400 tests.

Meanwhile, Auckland has become the second district health board to fully vaccinate 90 per cent of Māori.

South Canterbury had become the ninth DHB to vaccinate 90 per cent of Māori with a first dose.

Slightly more than 15,102 paediatric doses were administered on Tuesday, bringing the total to 110,123.

Just under 56,900 booster doses were given, totalling 1,110,408 to date.