Covid 19 Omicron outbreak: Three in four schools now dealing with cases

More than 50,000 students and staff at New Zealand's schools and early learning services are isolating with Covid, the latest Ministry of Education data shows.

Seventy-five per cent of New Zealand's schools and 40 per cent of all early learning services have at least one current Covid case among staff or students, as of this morning.

That's up from Monday when 60 per cent of schools and 26 per cent of early learning services were dealing with at least one case.

Those figures come from Ministry of Education data captured at 10.30am today, based on cases reported in the last 10 days.

Over that period schools and ECEs had notified the Ministry of 51,773 cases - more than double the 25,059 cases reported in the 10 days to Monday.

In phase 3 of the Omicron response, schools and ECEs don't have to contact trace, and classmates or teachers of a case don't have to isolate. But the school or ECE must still tell the Ministry of any new cases.

In Auckland, 90 per cent of schools are dealing with at least one case, as are 89 per cent in the Taranaki / Whanganui / Manawatū region.

Eighty-six per cent of Wellington schools and 82 per cent of Canterbury schools are also dealing with a current case.

In Auckland, 51 per cent of early learning services are affected, as are 47 per cent of ECEs in Wellington.

Just today and yesterday, 8533 new cases were notified at schools and ECEs across New Zealand.

Of those, 7041 were students, 870 were teachers and 622 were classed as "other".

While the number of affected schools in Auckland is still rising, fewer cases are being notified in the city. Today and yesterday there were 3240 new cases in Auckland schools and ECEs, down from 3871 on Sunday and Monday.

That appears to back up Dr Ashley Bloomfield's statement today that the outbreak in the city may have plateaued.

But outside the city, the number of cases being reported has nearly doubled. There were 5293 cases notified in the past two days outside Auckland, up from 2910 reported on Sunday and Monday.

Sean Teddy, the Ministry of Education's leader of operations, said in a prepared statement that the public health advice was that schools and kura were at lower risk for transmission of Covid-19.

"Schools/kura and [early learning services] are doing a great job providing up-to-date health information and assurance to their students, staff, and parent communities that everything that needs to be done is being done and their safety and wellbeing is the top priority."

Teddy said the more layers of protection were in place, the harder it was for the virus to be transmitted.

To reduce the risk, schools, kura and ECEs needed to take steps like ventilating occupied spaces, normalising mask-wearing, reducing mingling of students and staff, and follow public health advice wherever there were cases or when people had Covid-19 symptoms, he said.