61 Covid cases

There are 18 new community cases of Covid-19, and 43 detected at the border. The new community cases were in Auckland (11), Waikato (four), Bay of Plenty (one) and Canterbury (two). The Canterbury cases were announced on Thursday, but officially added to the tally yesterday. The cases at the border had arrived from Australia, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Fiji and the United States. The Ministry of Health said a total of 266 Omicron cases had been detected at the border since December 1. The seven-day rolling average of border cases was 31. During that time, more than 18,000 people had arrived in New Zealand and been processed through managed isolation and quarantine, the ministry said. Thirty-four people with the virus were in hospital, and two were in intensive care.