There are 28 new Covid-19 cases in the community on Tuesday, the Ministry of Health has announced.
No new Omicron cases have been detected at the border, meaning the total remains at 22. Zero of the Omicron cases are in the community.
Of the 28 new community cases, 21 are in Auckland, five are in the Bay of Plenty, and two are in Taranaki.
Fifty-seven people are in hospital with the virus, including seven in an intensive care or high dependency unit.
The ministry revealed the returnee who discharged themselves from Auckland's Middlemore Hospital after being transferred there from MIQ had their child with them.
They had ridden in the ambulance with their parent because they were too young to be left alone in the MIQ facility.
"We want to reiterate the importance of the pair returning to managed isolation to complete their isolation period and to have further testing on Day 3 and Day 6," the ministry said.
The Bay of Plenty's five new cases are in Tauranga (4) and Murupara (1). The Murupara case is a household contact of an earlier case.
Taranaki's new cases are linked to the Eltham cluster and a New Plymouth case respectively. There are 32 active cases in the region.
Five new cases in MIQ were also announced in Tuesday's numbers. They had arrived in New Zealand between December 15 and 19.
One of them had travelled from Tanzania and two had travelled from the UK. The full travel history of the remaining two is to be confirmed.
The five cases tested positive for the virus between day zero and five of routine testing.
SHARE ME