Of the cases 97 are in Auckland and one each in Canterbury, Nelson-Marlborough, Taranaki and Bay of Plenty, the Ministry of Health said in its 1pm update.
Of the cases, both in Taranaki and Nelson-Tasman cases were first announced at the weekend but are being officially included in today's numbers. The other cases are in Tauranga and Christchurch.
The Christchurch case was a household member of previously reported cases and was already in a managed isolation facility when they tested positive.
There are 61 people in hospital with Covid-19, of which four are in ICU.
Meanwhile, from from Wednesday, rapid antigen testing would be available for free at participating pharmacies for asymptomatic unvaccinated people aged 12 years and 3 months and over who were travelling during the holiday period.
Evidence of a supervised negative rapid antigen test would be required for these unvaccinated travellers leaving the Auckland region and for domestic travel with some transport companies.
As of this morning 483 pharmacies across the motu had opted in to provide these supervised tests. Of these 138 are in the Auckland region with a total of 345 in the North Island and 138 in the South Island. Participating pharmacies can be found on the Healthpoint website – www.healthpoint.co.nz
While rapid antigen tests would at times give false positive results, any unvaccinated people who received a positive rapid antigen test result would be advised to seek a confirmatory PCR test. Furthermore, they would not be able to travel without a negative PCR test result so people were advised plan ahead to allow sufficient time to get tested and receive your result.
Cabinet meeting on traffic light settings
It comes as Cabinet will today consider case numbers, vaccination rates and the length of time the new traffic light system has been in place as it gets ready to announce what colours the country will be in to welcome the new year.
The number of Covid-19 case numbers has declined in recent days from its 200-plus peak to hovering around the low 100s figure.
Today is Cabinet's last chance to change traffic light settings until January 17.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will then unveil Cabinet's decision at 4pm.
Yesterday there were 103 new cases of Covid-19 in the community - up on Saturday's tally of 63.
It comes as Auckland business leaders are calling on the government to move the city from the red traffic setting to orange based on the falling case numbers and high vaccination rates.
All Auckland's DHBs have now reached the 90 per cent double-vaccinated rate.
The Prime Minister told RNZ this morning it was still early days of transitioning into the traffic light system and they wanted to make sure they saw the full impact of that easing.
"We've only been in these settings for about 10 days."
When Cabinet met today, it would receive the additional information from the public health team and consider all views. A decision would then be announced at 4pm.
"We will take an approach that will stand us in good stead. One thing we are mindful of is if you do move too soon you run the risk of escalating cases and you end up in higher restrictions. We want to go the distance."
Although throughout the pandemic there would be a bit of "going back and forward", she said.
When Auckland's border lifted on Wednesday, Ardern encouraged people planning to travel out of the region for the Christmas period to continue to take safety precautions.
However epidemiologist Rod Jackson felt it was too soon to make any changes because 10 days since Freedom Friday wasn't long enough.
"If we loosen restrictions more we are going to end up going up again by the end of the year."
Australia was a good indication of what happened when restrictions loosened and case numbers were already rising again in NSW cases and no longer dropping in Victoria.
Bars were the only ones keen to move as most restaurants seemed to be doing okay, he told RNZ.
Te Pūnaha Matatini Covid-19 modeller Professor Michael Plank said the Omicron variant could spread quite quickly so believed there could be a "clear case" for delaying the border reopening from mid-January and keep MIQ in place for longer.
This would give time for New Zealanders to have their booster shots as UK data showed those with two doses and the booster had a much higher level of protection than those with just two doses.
Even if the majority of cases were mild due to the large number of cases likely, it could still put a significant number of people in hospital, he told RNZ.
"The fact that it can spread so quickly and infect people who have been vaccinated more easily means it is certainly likely to cause problems."
Both Ardern and the experts expected more information around the severity of Omicron to be known in the next few weeks.
