Covid 19 Omicron outbreak: New cases in Rotorua, BOP and Taupō, border changes announced

There are nine new cases of Covid-19 in the Lakes District Health Board region and eight in the Bay of Plenty District Health Board region today.

Eight of today's Lakes cases are in the Rotorua district and one is in the Taupō district. Eight are linked to existing cases and one is yet to be connected to the outbreak with investigations underway.

Of the BOP cases, five are in Tauranga, one is in the Western Bay of Plenty and two are in the Eastern Bay of Plenty.

Seven are linked to existing cases and one is yet to be connected to the outbreak.

There are 147 new cases in New Zealand with 13 in hospital, including three in Rotorua Hospital.

There are several new locations of interest for the region.

Plan to reopen border, new mask rules come into effect tonight

Ahead of today's update on case numbers the Government announced it was reopening the border – starting with Kiwis coming from Australia from the end of the month.

In a speech to Business NZ in Auckland this morning, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern outlined the five-stage process of reopening the borders.

It also came on the same day changes to the mask-wearing protocol come into effect from 11.59pm tonight.

The changes were announced nine days ago by Ardern at a press conference and they affect those visiting food and drink businesses and other close proximity settings, as well as some primary and secondary students and workplaces with vaccine mandates in place.

On the new mask rules, Ardern said they would further help the "slow down of Omicron".

One of the new rules is that a face mask now needs to be an actual mask, meaning a covering that is attached to the head by loops around the ears or head - scarfs, bandannas and even T-shirts no longer suffice.

Within just a month of the first community exposure to Omicron in New Zealand, the variant has already become the dominant strain of Covid-19.

New modelling predicted that New Zealand could hit 400 daily cases by the end of the week.