Monday January 31

Covid-19 cases linked to Soundsplash continue to grow with 1 official new case and three other cases in Tairāwhiti today.

The three other cases, also linked to Soundsplash, will be added to the Ministry's official numbers tomorrow. Another case in Tairāwhiti will also be officially announced tomorrow as officials continue to investigate its links. 

There are 91 new community cases of Covid-19 today.

Of these, 1 is in Northland, 65 are in Auckland, 17 in Waikato, 1 in Tairāwhiti, 3 in Lakes, 1 in Bay of Plenty, 2 in Hawke’s Bay and 1 in Wellington.

There are 10 people in hospital, with no cases in intensive care or high dependency units.

The average age of people currently in hospital is 54.

Omicron update

Omicron is now the dominant variant and the Ministry of Health announced the specific variant of the virus will no longer be reported alongside case numbers. 

"As cases continue to increase, the priority for whole genome sequencing will be to highlight patterns of virus spread rather than individual cases," the Ministry of Health said.

Public health teams are continuing to manage both Omicron and Delta cases in the community through rapidly isolating cases and contacts, contact tracing, and testing to slow the spread. 

Whole genome sequencing continues to take place on all new unlinked cases of Covid-19.

Vaccinations

96 percent of New Zealand's eligible population have had the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, and 94 percent have had a second dose.

There have been 4,989,762 vaccine pass downloads, including 43,367 in the last 24 hours.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has received a negative Covid-19 test after being a close contact of a positive case during a flight from Kerikeri to Auckland on January 22. 

Click here for a list of updated locations of interest. 

Top image: A man walks past a Government Covid-19 poster regarding mask rules. Photo: Getty Images 

More stories:

Prime minister tests negative for Covid-19

Three-day Waitangi Day event at Te Tii Marae cancelled

Soundsplash festival worker says ‘only a handful’ of vendors wearing masks