There are 202 new cases in New Zealand with 14 in hospital, including one in Rotorua Hospital. The Rotorua Hospital case is listed as being in the intensive care or high dependency unit.
Rotorua restaurant, Tauranga bus route new high-risk locations of interest
Anyone who ate in at Taco Bell in Fairy Springs on Thursday, February 3, between 7pm and 7.30pm needs to self-isolate and get a test immediately and on day five after being at that location of interest, according to advice on the Ministry of Health website this morning.
Also, anyone on Bus 72B Stop Tauranga CBD Stand B to Stop Otumoetai Rd - Lydbrook Place in Tauranga February 2 between 6.37pm and 6.49pm needs to self-isolate and get a test immediately and on day five after being at that location of interest.
There are several new locations of interest for the region.
BOP school moves to offsite learning after students exposed
A Bay of Plenty school will move to offsite learning this week after students were determined to be close contacts to a Covid-19 case.
A notice posted to Pongakawa School parents and caregivers on Saturday advised that the Medical Officer of Health had said students who travelled on the afternoon Pukehina Bus on February 1 were now considered close contacts.
Pongakawa School principal Craig Haggo told parents and caregivers yesterday that the Medical Officer of Health and Director of Education Bay of Plenty instructed him to move the school to an offsite learning situation for the remainder of the week, opening again for onsite learning on Monday, February 14.
A testing station was set up at the school yesterday.
Read full story here.
Protesters arrive at Parliament
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is not prepared to engage with the anti-mandate convoy making its way to Parliament.
She told RNZ she had a busy day ahead including a caucus meeting and had no intention to greet the convoy when it arrived.
The convoy is descending on the capital later than planned, but when it eventually arrives there are expected to be up to 1000 vehicles congregating outside the steps of Parliament.
People involved are coming from both ends of the country - with a convoy of vehicles travelling from Bluff and another convoy coming from Cape Reinga.
"No, it's not our intention. We have a full day in Parliament today as well with the caucus, public backing session so a busy day ahead of us and that's what we'll be focused on today," said Ardern.
Omicron to peak in March
Ardern told RNZ Omicron was expected to peak in March.
"In terms of timeframe – we're assessing based on other countries and I would say not this month, it looks more like in the 60-day order for most countries, so more likely in March.
"Ultimately the defining feature of where we will be will be booster uptake, the more people that take a booster the lower the likelihood of our peak."
The latest modelling from Rodney Jones, out later this week, suggests New Zealand's daily cases could peak at 10,000.
It also predicts about 500 deaths over a year, Jones told RNZ.
Kiwis getting their booster jab was again crucial.
"That will deliver a much better outcome," he said.
"We can get a bad scenario, and a bad scenario in our model is 16,000 to 20,000 cases and that's if people stop getting boosted and home isolation stops working so effectively.
"If we stop doing what we did in Delta, yeah we can get big numbers, we can't engineer 50,000, that doesn't apply to New Zealand."
Pasifika health expert Dr Collin Tukuitonga also encouraged people to get the vaccination booster and to keep getting tested.
Speaking to TVNZ's Breakfast, he said low testing rates could be why the tens of thousands of Covid cases projected by experts a few weeks ago had not come to fruition.
People were not getting tested because they were not symptomatic or because they did not want to test positive and then have to isolate for days, he said.
