Covid 19 Omicron outbreak: 143 in hospital with virus, daily cases hit new high of 2846

There are 2846 new cases of Covid-19 in the community today and 143 people are in hospital with the virus.

Both figures are the highest since the pandemic hit our shores. Out of the 143, only one person is in ICU.

Of today's community cases, 1802 are in Auckland.

The remaining cases are in Northland (36), Waikato (285), Bay of Plenty (86), Lakes (19), Hawke's Bay (25), MidCentral (25), Whanganui (19), Taranaki (26), Tairāwhiti (17), Wairarapa (2), Capital and Coast (84), Hutt Valley (25), Nelson Marlborough (77), Canterbury (105), South Canterbury (4) and the Southern region (206).

There have been 15 Covid-19 cases detected at the border.

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The number of active community cases in total is 18,628.

In the past 24 hours, 24,351 Covid-19 tests have been processed.

The rolling average for tests for the past seven days is 29,036.

The 143 people hospitalised with Covid-19 are in North Shore (27), Middlemore (51), Auckland (50), Tauranga (5), Lakes (1), Waikato (7), Tairāwhiti (1) and Canterbury (1) hospitals.

The Ministry of Health provides the vaccination status of those in Northern Region (Auckland and Northland) hospitals and excluding emergency departments.
The vaccination status of those included in this count is:

• Unvaccinated or not eligible: 19 cases / 18 per cent

• Partially immunised: less than seven days from second dose or have only received one dose: four cases / 4 per cent

• Fully vaccinated: at least seven days before being reported as a case: 80 cases / 75 per cent

• Unknown: four cases / 4 per cent

The Ministry of Health says over the last week, a significant number of concerned people who don't need a test have been going to get one.

Those were people who didn't have any Covid-19 symptoms and were not a contact of a case, the ministry said.

This morning long queues at testing centres across Auckland were causing chaos on the roads. Cars were seen lining up on footpaths.

Growing demand for testing has meant some Covid-19 test results for Auckland and Waikato have taken longer to process, the ministry said.

The use of rapid antigen testing, alongside PCR testing, would improve this process at a time of exceptional demand in phase 2, provided the community testing centre queues were freely available for those who really need a test, the health ministry said.

"We are anticipating continued high demand at our Covid-19 testing sites, so our request is to please be patient.

"Staff across the testing network are working tirelessly, to process tests and return results in a timely way. We would like to thank them for their recent mahi."

There are 7.3m rapid antigen tests in the country, the ministry said.

The big boost

More than 27,770 booster doses were administered across the motu yesterday.

"With Omicron spreading rapidly in New Zealand, it is important everyone who is eligible gets a booster dose, which greatly reduces your chances of getting severely ill and requiring hospital care if you test positive for Covid-19."

This would reduce Covid-19 hospitalisations and ensure there was capacity in the health system for anyone who needed care, the ministry said.

"If it has been three months since your last dose, please book your booster today."

To date, there have been 4,016,886 first doses (for those 12-plus) , 3,953,287 second doses (for those 12-plus), 32,553 third primary doses, 2,197,887 booster doses, 229,583 paediatric first doses and 1962 paediatric second doses administered.

These figures included vaccines administered in New Zealand only.

The ministry noted that in recent days the total number of vaccines administered to date for first and second doses had also included paediatric doses - which explained why today's figure appeared lower.

Reporting going forward for total vaccines administered to date would not include paediatric doses.

Across all ethnicities and including people vaccinated overseas,96.4 per cent of eligible people aged 12 plus have been partially vaccinated, 94.9 per cent have received their second dose and 67.1 per cent of those eligible have been boostered.

For eligible Māori aged 12 and older, 90.7 per cent have been partially vaccinated, 86.9 per cent have received their second dose and 56.5 per cent of those eligible have been boosted.

For eligible Pacific peoples aged 12 and older, 97.7 per cent have received one dose of vaccine, 95.4 per cent have received two and 54 per cent of those eligible have been boostered.

For 5-11-year-olds, across all ethnicities, 48.2 per cent have received their first dose of vaccine.

For Māori children, aged 5-11 years old, 28.6 per cent have received their first dose.
For Pacific children in this age group, 39.9 per cent have received their first dose of the vaccine.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has indicated that restrictions and mandates will begin to ease once the country is over the peak of Omicron but for now case numbers continue to remain elevated.

Ardern did not give a specific date for when some vaccination mandates and health measures would begin to ease but predicted the country would be on the other side of the Omicron outbreak by mid to late March.

Ardern emphasised that ending restrictions won't be because of the protest activity outside Parliament.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern visiting the Shott factory in Westgate today. Photo / Dean Purcell.

"It will be because easing restrictions won't compromise the lives of thousands of people – not because you demanded it."

Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson told AM phase 3 of the red-light response would not be "far away at all".

The trigger point was around 5000 cases a day and cases were currently doubling every three to four days.

Under phase 3, the definition of a close contact changed and narrowed to basically being a household contact so this would help businesses keep going with fewer people required to isolate.

"We do recognise with more cases, the level of disruption businesses face is going to be much higher."

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Yesterday Robertson announced a financial support package for businesses, but some are saying it is not targeted enough.

A maximum of $24,000 will be made available for businesses struggling with a business downturn during the red light setting and the Omicron outbreak.

"Firms must show a 40 per cent drop in seven consecutive days within the six weeks prior to the shift to Phase 2 of the Omicron response on February 15," Robertson announced at Monday afternoon's post-Cabinet press conference.

Meanwhile, the anti-mandate protest at Parliament has entered day 15.

Violent scenes erupted this morning after a car was driven into a crowd of police and protesters.

At least three police officers also required medical attention after being sprayed with an "unknown substance".

Police worked this morning to close in on the protesters by moving concrete barriers further up into the occupied area to reclaim the surrounding streets.