Thursday January 27
At least 1 of the cases who went to Soundsplash, a music festival in Hamilton, has tested positive for the Omicron variant.
Yesterday afternoon, 5 people in Auckland tested positive for Covid-19 after attending Soundsplash over the weekend.
A location of interest has been published for the event.
Genome Sequencing has confirmed that at least 1 of the cases who attended the festival has the Omicron variant. Whole genome sequencing is under way for the remaining 4 cases.
Anyone who attended the festival is asked to self-monitor for symptoms for 10 days following exposure at the event, which is until Wednesday, February 2.
If any cold or flu symptoms develop which could be Covid-19, please get a test and isolate at home until a negative result is returned.
So far, 68 people who attended the festival have been identified as close contacts, this number is expected to increase.
Interviews with the 5 cases will help in finding out whether they contracted Covid-19 before or while attending the festival.
Cases
There are 45 community cases today.
Of these new cases, 22 are in Auckland, 2 in Waikato, 7 in the Lakes District, 1 in Taranaki, 8 in Hawke’s Bay, 2 in the Nelson-Marlborough region and 3 in the Bay of Plenty.
There are 4 community cases in Christchurch today and 2 are in the same household. These cases will be included in tomorrow's official case numbers.
There is also a new case in Gisborne that is under investigation. This will be included in tomorrow’s case numbers as the result was received after the cut-off time.
Omicron update
To date, there are 90 community cases of Covid-19 that are either confirmed as Omicron variant or have been linked to previously reported Omicron case. This is an increase of 34 cases since yesterday.
There are active cases being treated as Omicron in Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki, Palmerston North, and Nelson Tasman.
Many of these additional cases have previously been reported as Covid-19 cases and linked retrospectively either through whole genome sequencing or epidemiologically.
Therefore, many are not included in today’s reported new Covid-19 community cases.
Vaccinations
More than 120,000 under 11-year-olds have had their first jab.
Canterbury has become the third district health board where more than 90 percent of its eligible Māori population are fully vaccinated.
More than four million first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine have now been administered to our people aged 12 and over across Aotearoa.
There were 13,995 paediatric doses administered yesterday, bringing the total to 124,155.
This is 26 percent of the 5 to 11 age group. A further 25,596 are booked in for a first dose.
There were 50,946 boosters administered yesterday, bringing the total to 1,163,046. This is 63 percent of all those that have become due for a booster shot.
Click here for a list of updated locations of interest.
Top Image: A picture of masks. (File photo) Photo: Getty Images
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