Six new cases of Omicron have been found at New Zealand’s border on Wednesday.
The Ministry of Health says that brings the total number of international arrivals to New Zealand with the Omicron variant to 28.
Since December 1, there have been 45 Covid-19 cases detected at the border, with 28 of those being Omicron.
It comes as Covid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins on Tuesday announced a suite of protection measures against Omicron, including a delay to MIQ free travel.
Beginning with Australia, any quarantine-free travel has been pushed back until the end of February 2022.
Self-isolation for travellers from Australia was set to begin from January 17.
Hipkins also announced that the time to wait for a Covid-19 booster shot had been reduced from six months to four months, for better protection against the Omicron variant.
Hipkins said they were hoping to rollout the vaccine booster programme before people began isolating at home.
He said waiting until "the end of February will increase New Zealand’s overall protection and slow Omicron’s eventual spread".
Between the first Omicron case being reported to the World Health Organisation on 24 November to 20 December, 11,014 returnees to New Zealand have been through managed isolation.
The delay of MIQ free travel has many reconsidering their plans. (Source: 1News)
Of those, 1,877 have gone through managed isolation since whole genome sequencing first identified Omicron at the border on 16 December.
The Ministry of Health says health and MIQ teams have been carefully planning for Omicron cases at the border and will continue to manage all arrivals cautiously.
This includes isolation and testing requirements for all new arrivals, infection and prevention control and PPE measures at airports and MIQ facilities, and frequent surveillance testing of staff who have any contact with recent international returnees.
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