There are 2846 new community cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand today, a record total, including 109 in the Canterbury area.
Today's numbers from the Ministry of Health come after 2365 yesterday and a previous record 2522 on Sunday. There were also two further deaths associated with the virus yesterday.
The new cases are in: Northland (36), Auckland (1,802), Waikato (285), Bay of Plenty (86), Lakes (19), Hawke’s Bay (25), MidCentral (25), Whanganui (19), Taranaki (26), Tairāwhiti (17), Wairarapa (2), Capital and Coast (84), Hutt Valley (25), Nelson Marlborough (77), Canterbury (105), South Canterbury (4), Southern (206).
There are also 15 new cases identified at the border.
There are 143 people in hospital today, with one in ICU.
One of the cases in hospital was in Christchurch and the remaining 142 were in North Shore 27; Middlemore 51; Auckland 50; Tauranga 5; Lakes 1; Waikato 7; and Tairāwhiti 1. The average age of the current hospitalisations is 56.
The ministry said there were 18,628 active community cases today, and the total number of cases since the pandemic began was 35,771.
On vaccinations, 471 first doses were administered yesterday, 981 second doses, 66 third primary doses, 1273 paediatric doses, and 27,770 booster doses.
"With Omicron spreading rapidly in New Zealand, it is important everyone who is eligible gets a booster dose, which greatly reduces your chances of getting severely ill and requiring hospital care if you test positive for Covid-19," the ministry said.
On testing, it said there were 24,351 tests processed in the last 24 hours.
The ministry said it continued to stress the importance of the right people being tested for the right reasons.
"Over the last week, a significant number of concerned people who don't need a test are going to get a test - those are people who don't have any Covid-19 symptoms and are not a contact of a case.
"People should only get tested if they have cold or flu symptoms, have been identified as a close contact of a case, or have been asked to get tested by a health official."
The latest numbers come as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has indicated that restrictions and mandates will begin to ease once the country is over the peak of Omicron but for now case numbers continue to remain elevated.
There have been long queues at testing centres across Christchurch and other New Zealand cities, which were causing chaos on the roads.
Ardern did not give a specific date for when some vaccination mandates and health measures would begin to ease but predicted the country would be on the other side of the Omicron outbreak by mid to late March.
While most of the cases in the current outbreak are believed to be the Omicron variant, health officials have confirmed that Southerners are battling both the Omicron and Delta variants of the virus.
Environmental Science and Research data has picked up Delta hotspots in both Wellington and Dunedin, and the Southern District Health Board yesterday confirmed it was dealing with cases of it, as well as Omicron.
"Both are active in the southern district, although the vast majority of cases are Omicron," a spokeswoman said.
Omicron is eventually expected to swamp Delta, but for now the SDHB was unaware how many cases of each it faced.
-Reporting ODT Online, RNZ
