Aotearoa's first Omicron case
A person in a Christchurch managed isolation facility is the country's first Omicron case.
The person arrived in the country on a flight from Germany via Dubai and landed in Auckland before people on that flight were transferred to Christchurch.
The person with Omicron is in a Christchurch Sudima hotel and was tested on day one. A positive Covid-19 result was reported on day two on December 12.
The case was then reported on December 13. Subsequent genome testing confirmed the person was infected with the Omicron variant.
Everyone on the flights (both international and domestic) and people staying on the same floor as the infected person are considered close contacts.
Director-General of Health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, says people on the same flight were in two separate Christchurch hotels.
"We fully expected we would find a case of Omicron and in fact, we are treating every border-related case as if it were Omicron until proven otherwise," Bloomfield says.
Thursday December 16
Today there are 91 new cases of Covid-19.
Of these, 55 are in Auckland, 7 in Waikato, 10 in Bay of Plenty, 1 in the Lakes District and 16 in Taranaki.
There are 58 people in hospital, with 4 of those people in intensive care or high dependency units.
The average age of people currently in hospital is 49.
94 percent of New Zealand's eligible population have had the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, and 90 percent have had a second dose.
There have been 4,299,816 vaccine pass downloads, including 38,774 in the last 24 hours.
Wastewater sampling from the Gisborne region has found its sixth positive result for Tairāwhiti in recent weeks, indicating there may be unknown community cases.
Click here for a list of updated locations of interest.
Top image: Signs approaching the Northland checkpoint. Photo: Fiona Goodall/Getty Images
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