By RNZ.co.nz and is republished with permission.
There are 19 new community cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand today and 43 cases in managed isolation, the Ministry of Health has reported.
In a statement, the Health Ministry said the number of new cases in Auckland had dropped to single figures.
The 19 new community cases are in Auckland (6), Waikato (5), Bay of Plenty (5), Northland (1) and Taranaki (2).
The Emergency Department at Taranaki Base Hospital was identified as an exposure event yesterday, but no staff have been stood down.
A bowling avenue in Tauranga (Tenpin Tauranga 135 Thirteenth Avenue) has been identified as a close contact place after a case was there on 30 December between 10.15am – 2.30pm.
In Auckland, JUMP Trampoline Park in Takanini has also been identified as a close contact place for 3 January between 10am and 1.30pm as well as 28 December between 10.30am and 1pm.
The Ministry said whole genome sequencing of the 43 new imported cases is expected soon, but the likelihood was that Omicron will continue to be “the most prevalent variant at our borders”.
The new cases came from USA, UAE, UK, Australia, India, Qatar, Singapore, Spain, Germany, Fiji and Sri Lanka.
At the Ministry’s last update yesterday, there wereĀ 17 new community cases and 23 new cases of the virus in MIQ.
There have now been 11,022 cases in the current community outbreak and 14,092 confirmed cases in New Zealand since the pandemic began.
There are now 38 people with the coronavirus in hospital, including four in intensive care.
The Ministry said there had been an increase in the number of New Zealanders getting first and second vaccinations in the past day, along with a surge in booster shots, with a total of 41,165 booster shots given yesterday.
“The jump in booster shots was of course expected as those who’d had their second vaccine four months ago became eligible for a booster shot from yesterday. There were also more than twice as many My Vaccine passes downloaded in the last 24 hours than the previous day.”
