November 29 2021
Most of the upper North Island - including Auckland - will go straight into the red level under the new traffic light system from Friday, while the whole of the South Island will go to the less restrictive orange.
There were 182 Covid-19 cases today as the Government decided on the traffic light system while the Omicron variant starts to spread in more countries.
The cases are in Northland, Auckland and Waikato. There is also a new case in the Nelson-Marlborough region, however that will be added into tomorrow's cases as it was confirmed after today's 9am deadline.
The most recent locations were visited on Saturday. Anyone who visited any of the locations of interest must self-monitor for Covid-19 symptoms for 10 days.
There are 167 cases in Auckland, 10 in Waikato and five cases in Northland.
There are 93 people in hospital, including 10 in ICU or HDU. Of the 93 cases in hospitals, an increase of 11 on yesterday, 17 are in North Shore, 33 in Middlemore, 37 in Auckland, four in Waikato and one in Rotorua.
The Government's decision on the traffic light system came as a new variant of Covid-19 gets closer to our doorstep - after confirmation that the potentially more infectious Omicron strain of the virus has reached Australia.
Two of Northland's new cases announced yesterday are being officially added to the case tally today.
The remainder are made up of two cases in Kawakawa and one case in the Far North. These three cases are linked to existing cases.
Meanwhile, an unexpected detection of the virus was picked up in a wastewater sample taken in Opononi last week.
There are five pop-up and dedicated testing sites operating across Waikato today in Hamilton, Ōtorohanga, Thames and Te Kuiti.
There are four Covid-19 positive patients in hospital, including one in ICU. Health staff in Waikato are now supporting 124 cases to isolate at home.
Yesterday's new case in Hawke's Bay has been linked to an Auckland case and is now isolating in a community isolation facility.
Close contacts identified to date have been contacted and are now isolating at home. Two close contacts in the case's household have returned negative tests.
Patients at Hawke's Bay Hospital Emergency Department at the same time as this case have now been contacted and asked to self-monitor for symptoms.
Following a border case in Christchurch yesterday, five close contacts are now self-isolating with testing under way.
The case travelled from Auckland to Christchurch on Thursday November 25 on Air NZ Flight NZ8475 arriving in Christchurch at 10.50am.
Anyone who is considered a potential contact of this case will be contacted directly.
Unless you are contacted, you are asked to monitor for symptoms, and get tested straight away if you develop any consistent with Covid-19.
Meanwhile, there are three new cases at the border. The first flew from the UK via Singapore and is isolating in Christchurch.
The second flew from Austria via Singapore on the 21st and is also isolating in Christchurch.
The remaining case arrived in New Zealand on November 23 via Singapore and is isolating in Auckland.
There have now been a total of 7,495,686 vaccine doses issued around the country. Of those, 3,882,575, or 92 per cent, are first doses and 85 per cent or 3,592,142 are second doses.
Eighty two per cent of eligible Māori have had their first dose, while 68 per cent have had both.
As for Pasifika, they've now reached 91 per cent first doses and 82 per cent second doses.
Ardern told Three's AM Show this morning that it was too early to say what changes officials here may need to make in response to Omicron - particularly as New Zealand gets set to open its borders to Kiwi citizens and residents in Australia in mid-January.
Officials could respond "very quickly" at the border if need be, she said, and she acknowledged that travellers were still required to go through the managed isolation and quarantine system on arrival.
She said the Government needs more information before saying whether the move to allow travellers from Australia to skip MIQ and isolate at home from mid-January would change.
"We need to be prepared for it either to be possibly more severe, or possibly milder. We just don't know yet."
She said they would not be cancelling Christmas and had no reason to do that.
Experts continue to say that the best protection against Covid-19 is vaccination. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
Ardern said internal work has been carried out on intensive care unit capacity in hospitals.
The bigger issue was beefing up the nurse workforce than just the physical space in a hospital to put in additional ICU beds.
She said they had increased the nurses' pay and also made sure they had capacity in MIQ to make sure they could bring nurses home.
Epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker says news of the new Covid-19 variant, Omicron, was depressing.
"I know this is very depressing news for all of us - the fact this virus keeps evolving," he told TVNZ's Breakfast this morning.
The fact that it was potentially very infectious was still being investigated. But he acknowledged the number of cases of the new variant already starting to pop up in countries overseas, mainly South Africa.
"It's obviously, as they say, fit enough to travel around the globe at the moment. But time will tell how well it performs.
"But at the moment, I think it's quite worrying that it's travelled so far."
Baker said it was still not known whether the Omicron variant would effectively be stronger than current vaccines being administered to the world's population.
"Really, the only way to stop these new variants emerging is to deliver vaccines to the whole planet - to everyone. That would really dampen down transmission."
On Omicron being confirmed in Australia last night, he said New Zealand still had the chance to protect its borders and keep Omicron out.
"We can actually keep this variant out. It might affect how we loosen travel restrictions in the new year - but it all depends on how serious this variant turns out to be."
Aucklanders are expected to see even more restrictions lifted after a Government announcement this afternoon. Photo / Alex Robertson
He said today's announcement on the move into the traffic light system would help give assurance to people who were vaccinated.
It would also give a nudge to those who are still hesitant about getting the jab.
Cambridge University medical consultant Chris Smith told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking he was reassured about Omicron because it had been picked up.
He acknowledged the South African scientists who found it.
South Africa has reported thousands of cases, and although symptoms had been mild, living conditions were quite different compared with other populations, along with vaccination rates.
There, just 30 per cent of the population had been vaccinated.
