Eleven new Omicron cases in the community have been confirmed on Saturday, the Ministry of Health has announced.
It comes as there were 97 total community Covid-19 cases.
The 97 community cases are in Northland (1), Auckland (61), Waikato (14), Tairāwhiti (3), Bay of Plenty (8), Rotorua (7) and Hawke’s Bay (3).
"The number of cases and contacts are expected to grow given the highly transmissible nature of Omicron and as we learn more from case interviews," the ministry said in a statement.
The total number of Omicron community cases, either confirmed or linked to previously reported Omicron cases, is now 116.
Active Omicron cases are in Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki, MidCentral, Canterbury, Tairāwhiti and Nelson-Tasman.
Two of Northland's cases, Tairāwhiti's three infections, and one of the three cases in Hawke's Bay are linked to the Soundsplash music festival in Hamilton last weekend, and are being treated as though they are Omicron.
To date, 39 cases have been connected to Soundsplash.
"However, this number will grow as further test results are received," it said in a statement.
Due to the increase in Soundsplash cases, the ministry is now advising all attendees to get a test if they have not already done so.
The ministry also said two of four community cases in Canterbury reported earlier this week have Omicron.
Seven people are in hospital with the virus. No one is in an intensive care or high dependency unit.
The ministry said 10 of the Waikato's 14 new cases on Saturday had been linked to earlier cases. Four remain under investigation.
Six of Rotorua's seven cases are contacts of earlier cases. One remains under investigation.
Covid-19 on Singapore-flagged container ship
Three of Hawke's Bay's eight cases are onboard the Singapore-flagged Maersk Bogor container ship, the ministry said. It is currently under quarantine at the Port of Tauranga.
The ship arrived in port on Friday morning. Some of the 25 crew onboard have experienced Covid-like illness.
Testing returned three positive results in the 24-hour period to midnight on Saturday.
No one has been allowed off the ship, which is due to leave port on Sunday.
Fifty-eight cases at border
The ministry also announced 58 Covid cases at the border on Saturday.
They had arrived in New Zealand between January 13 and 27 from the United Arab Emirates, UK, US, Germany, Singapore, India, Albania, Australia, Egypt, Malaysia, Canada, Czech Republic, Qatar and Mexico.
Full travel history was still to be obtained for six of them.
They tested positive for the virus between day 0 and 14.
On Friday, 105 community cases were announced, with confirmation of 15 Omicron infections.
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