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There are 202 new cases of Covid-19 in the community today and 63 at the border.
Fourteen people are in hospital with Covid, including one in intensive care, the Ministry of Health said in a statement this afternoon. They are in North Shore, Middlemore, Auckland, Rotorua and Christchurch hospitals.
The average age of those in hospital with Covid is 60.
Today's new community cases are in Northland (17), Auckland (119), Waikato (39), the Lakes DHB region (4), Bay of Plenty (8), Taranaki (1), Hawke's Bay (8), Hutt Valley (1), Capital & Coast (4) and Nelson Marlborough (1).
The ministry acknowledged that there have been a number of Covid-19 cases identified at schools recently. However, it said this is not unexpected following the start of the school year.
The ministry said a range of public health measures had been established to help ensure tamariki were well protected at school. These included vaccination, which was "New Zealand's best defence against Covid-19" and would also help to lower the risk of transmission in schools.
All staff in schools are required to be vaccinated. There were also mask requirements for students at Year 4 and above, staff and visitors, and good hygiene practices were encouraged.
Parents were urged to keep children home from school and have them tested if they had any symptoms that could be Covid-19.
There are 17 new cases in Northland and investigations are ongoing to determine their links.
In Auckland, there are 119 new cases to report. They join the 2670 people in the region who are now isolating, of which 1099 are cases.
Twenty-nine of the 39 new cases in Waikato have links to previously reported cases. Public health staff are continuing their investigations into the remaining 10.
Twenty-five of these new cases are in Hamilton, two in Ngāruawāhia, two in Ōhaupō, two in Taupiri, one in Morrinsville and the locations of the remaining cases are to be confirmed.
There are four new cases in the Lakes DHB area today – two are in Rotorua and two are in Taupō.
Of these new cases, three have been linked to previously reported cases, while the source of the remaining case is under investigation.
There are eight new cases in the Bay of Plenty region, all in Tauranga or the wider Western Bay of Plenty. This number includes one mariner aboard the SF Maui, which has been at the Port of Tauranga.
Six of these cases are linked to previously reported cases.
Protesters arriving at Parliament. Photo / Jack Crossland
There is one new case in Taranaki today which is linked to a previously identified case in Northland. The ministry said the case was reported by Taranaki DHB on Sunday, but was officially included in today's numbers.
This case and their household contacts are isolating in South Taranaki and there were no new locations of interest for the region at this stage.
There are eight new cases in Hawke's Bay - four of which are associated with Te Mata Primary School in Havelock North.
The ministry said as two of the cases were unknowingly infectious while at school last week, a number of individuals have been identified as close contacts.
Pop-up testing is available for close contacts of the Te Mata School group today.
The other four Hawke's Bay cases are linked to known cases.
In Wellington, there are five new cases - all household contacts of existing cases.
The one new case in the Tasman region has been linked to a previously reported case.
Investigations are continuing to determine the source of a case who was staying at Tahuna Beach Holiday Park at the time of the positive test, the ministry said.
Mobile testing and vaccination was available at the park over the weekend and public health staff thanked people at the park for the strong testing and vaccination turnout.
Included in today's 63 new border new cases are 11 that have been reported on a vessel, the ministry said.
The seven day rolling average for community cases is 183, and the seven day rolling average for border cases is 38.
Yesterday there were 188 new cases in the community and 27 were detected at the border.
Fourteen people were in hospital with the virus, including just one in ICU or HDU.
There were 18,655 booster doses administered yesterday and 57 per cent of those due for their booster had now received it. That equated to 1.6 million booster doses given to date.
On paediatric Covid vaccinations, 1502 doses were given yesterday and 42 per cent of eligible 5 to 11-year-olds had now received their first jab.
To date, 200,562 first doses of paediatric vaccines have been administered. Overall, 96 per cent of eligible children have had their first dose of vaccine and 94 per cent have received two.
For eligible Māori (aged 12 and up), 90 per cent have received one dose of Covid-19 vaccine and 86 per cent have received their second dose.
For eligible Māori (aged 12 and up), 97 per cent and 94 per cent have received their first dose and second dose respectively.
For eligible Māori children (aged 5-11), 24 per cent have had their first dose of the paediatric Covid-19 vaccine.
The message from the ministry was anyone with symptoms that could be Covid-19 should get tested and isolate at home until they received a negative result.
For Omicron, the most common early symptoms were a sore or scratchy throat and a runny nose.
"Even if you develop a small sniffle, please get a test."
The total number of active Covid contacts that are being managed in New Zealand is 4996.
Seventy five per cent had received an outbound call from a contact tracer to confirm their testing and isolation requirements and 67 per cent had returned at least one result.
To date, 5,075,132 My Vaccine Passes have been downloaded, including 7292 yesterday.
Meanwhile, an East Auckland Indian restaurant and a fast-food outlet in Rotorua have today been named as high-risk locations of interest and those who dined there must isolate immediately.
Anyone who visited Gorkha Restaurant in Eastern Beach over the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of Auckland Anniversary Weekend is considered a close contact, along with anyone who ate in at Taco Bell in Fairy Springs on Thursday, February 3, between 7pm and 7.30pm.
Those customers need to self-isolate and get a test immediately and on day five after being at that location of interest, according to advice on the Ministry of Health website this morning.
Mask-wearing in Auckland's central city during the Omicron outbreak. Photo / Alex Burton
Latest modelling due today
The growing number of locations of interest comes as modelling for the growing Omicron outbreak is due to be released today.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told RNZ that she expects the peak of Omicron will hit New Zealand in March.
A few weeks ago, experts predicted that New Zealand would see tens of thousands of Covid cases by now.
Pasifika health expert Dr Collin Tukuitonga told TVNZ's Breakfast this morning that the reason the country is not seeing these high case numbers was because the rate of people getting tested was low.
Asked if complacency may play a part in people going to get tested, he said "absolutely".
"It's been over two years and people have had enough," he said.
On RNZ this morning Ardern said the figure on what New Zealand's peak of Omicron would look like was "widely variable".
"It's still very difficult to predict, and the way it'll behave," said Ardern.
"Ultimately the defining feature of where we will be will be booster uptake, the more people that take a booster the lower the likelihood of our peak."
