There are 76 new Covid-19 cases in the community on Friday, the Ministry of Health has announced.
The cases are in Auckland (47), Waikato (15), Bay of Plenty (10), Lakes (1), Taranaki (3).
Fifty-one people are in hospital with Covid-19. Five are in ICU or in a high-dependency unit, one in North Shore, two in Auckland and two in Middlemore.
It brings the total number of active cases to 2104. Active cases are defined as people identified as Covid-19 cases in the past 21 days and haven't been classed as recovered.
In Auckland, 2,064 people are being supported to isolate at home, including 538 cases, the Ministry of Health has said.
There are 15 cases in Waikato on Friday, with six in Hamilton and six in Te Kūiti. The locations of the three remaining cases are still under investigation. Sixty-eight people are being supported to isolate at home in the region.
The Ministry of Health says there are 10 pop-up and dedicated testing sites operating throughout Waikato on Friday, with sites in Hamilton, Te Kūiti, Ngāruawāhia, Huntly, Taumarunui, Tokoroa, Putāruru and Ōtorohanga.
The Bay of Plenty has 10 new cases, all of which are in the Tauranga area. Nine are linked to previously reported cases and one is being investigated for any links.
There were 91 new community cases on Thursday, with New Zealand’s first Omicron Covid-19 case confirmed in a Christchurch MIQ facility that evening.
There is one new case in the Lakes DHB region, in Rotorua. This person is a contact of a previous case and the Ministry of Health says they are currently isolating.
In Taranaki, there are three new cases, two are linked to the Eltham cluster and a third is based in New Plymouth. These cases were announced by the DHB on Thursday.
Covid-19 has also been detected in a wastewater sample in Napier taken on December 15.
Two other passengers on the same international flight as the Omicron case have tested positive for Covid-19 with whole genome sequencing for those cases due later on Friday.
A third passenger’s result is being investigated as a historical infection. Whole genome sequencing has identified one of these infections as the Delta variant with results for the other two due later on Friday.
READ MORE: Covid infections confirmed on flight with first Omicron case
There are three new cases at the border. One arrived into New Zealand from Singapore on 14 December and tested positive for Covid on Day 1. Two others arrived into the country on December 15, flying in from the UK and USA respectively. They both tested positive on arrival.
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