Kiwis no longer have to wait six months for a COVID-19 booster shot after the wait between the second dose of the vaccine and the booster was reduced from six to four months starting today.
The reduction in time was driven by studies showing vaccines were more effective against the new Omicron variant after the booster.
New Zealand's low case numbers in 2022 continued on Wednesday with just 17 new community cases - however the figure could be skewed by public holidays and low testing rates.
The Ministry of Health provided its latest update at 1pm.
What you need to know:
- There were 17 new community cases announced on Wednesday.
- 44 people are in hospital, including five in ICU
- Ninety-four percent of the eligible population in New Zealand double-vaccinated - including 91 percent of Pacific people and 81 percent of Māori.
- Click here for all locations of interest.
These live updates are now finished.
6:45pm - Longroom, a bar and nightclub in the Auckland central suburb of Ponsonby, has been named as a high-risk location of interest.
Anyone who was at the venue on New Year's Eve, between the hours of 10:07pm on December 31 to 12:50am on January 1, is advised to self-isolate, test immediately and also on day 5 after they were exposed. Further isolation and testing requirements will be provided by Public Health.
Murder Burger, a takeaway joint across the road (1:50-2:10am, January 1), and Unichem Greerton (December 29, 1:45-4pm) have also been named as high-risk locations of interest.
6:25pm - University of Otago epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker says it may be necessary to reduce travel from countries that are having very intensive Omicron outbreaks at the moment.
"The other thing we should look at is whether additional testing is needed before people get on flights," the COVID-19 expert said.
"We are in New Zealand, I think, very fortunate that we're having a time interval before Omicron is sweeping across the country. We have to use these days really wisely and get boosted as soon as we can."
5pm - You may have heard there's a new COVID-19 variant doing the rounds in France by the name of IHU.
But if you were worried it's the new Omicron, you probably don't need to fear, according to the World Health Organization.
WHO incident manager on COVID-19 Abdi Mahamud said at a press briefing in Switzerland this week that while IHU had been "on our radar", it had "had a lot of chances to pick up".
Read more here.
3:25pm - Just to point out how low New Zealand's COVID-19 case numbers were today, the last time we had so few cases was September 28, 2021 - well over three months ago - when we saw just eight cases in a day.
Just over 10,000 tests were completed in the last 24 hours.
2:15pm - COVID-19 numbers are coming in across Australia, and it's not pretty reading.
The headline figure is NSW's 35,054 cases, but thousands of cases are cropping up in other states too - including Victoria (17,636 cases) and Queensland (6781 cases).
The ACT (810 cases) and Tasmania (867 cases) are also recording more and more infections.
Figures for the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia are yet to be released.
1:30pm - Regional update:
There are more new cases in Tauranga than Auckland on Wednesday with the region reporting nine new cases, all are linked to previous cases.
Auckland
There are five new cases being reported in Auckland today.
Health and welfare providers are now supporting 1,091people to isolate at home, including 303 cases.
Third Omicron case confirmed.
Public health staff are continuing to manage the third case of Omicron who has tested positive with the variant.
They were a household contact of a case and have been in isolation during their infectious period. At this stage there are no locations of interest or exposure events.
The risk to the community from this case has been determined as extremely low.
Waikato
There are three cases in the Waikato today and all are linked. Two of the cases are in Te Kuiti and one is in Hamilton.
Pop-up testing sites are operating in Waihi and Whitianga today. For details of all dedicated testing sites operating over the holiday period, please visit the DHB page or DHB Facebook page.
Public Health staff, primary care and manaaki providers in the region are supporting 51 cases to isolate at home.
Bay of Plenty
Today we are reporting nine new cases in Bay of Plenty. All are in the Tauranga area and all are linked to previously reported cases.
Taranaki
Today we are reporting two cases in Taranaki. They are household contacts of each other in Taranaki.
Public health staff are continuing to investigate to determine links to any previously reported cases in the region.
Public health staff are also working to identify any other locations of interest and these will be updated on the Ministry of Health webpage as soon as possible.
The Emergency Department at Taranaki Base Hospital has been identified as an exposure event. The DHB is working with those who may be affected.
At this stage, no staff have had to be stood down. Anyone at the Emegency Department between Saturday 1 January at 6.30pm and midnight on Sunday 2 January will be considered a casual contact.
1:25pm - Full MOH statement:
From today, anyone aged 18 and over who had their second vaccination at least four months ago can get their booster dose.
People can book an appointment with the COVID Vaccination Healthline team on 0800 28 29 26, or they can visit a walk-in vaccination site. More than 5,300 booster shots were administered yesterday (5,328).
From 17 January 2022, people can book boosters at BookMyVaccine.nz if it’s been four months since their second dose. Those who had their second dose at least 6 months ago, can book an appointment now through Book My Vaccine.
From January 17, children aged between 5-12 will be eligible for the vaccine, those aged 12 and over are already eligible.
Omicron update
We are today reporting 23 cases identified at the border. While whole genome sequencing of these cases is expected soon, the likelihood is that Omicron will continue to be the most prevalent variant at our borders.
This variant of COVID-19 continues to be having a significant impact globally, so it is not unexpected to see an increase of Omicron cases at the border.
COVID-19 vaccine update
- Vaccines administered to date (percentage of eligible people): 3,975,922 first doses (94%); 3,858,117 second doses (92%); 29,250 third primary doses; 339,172 booster doses
- Vaccines administered yesterday: 403 first doses; 1,410 second doses; 20 third primary doses and 5,328 booster doses.
- Māori (percentage of eligible people): 500,775 first doses (88%); 462,658 second doses (81%)
- Pacific Peoples (percentage of eligible people): 271,497 first doses (95%); 259,634 second doses (91%)
Vaccination rates by DHB with active cases (percentage of eligible people)
- Northland DHB: First doses (89%); second doses (84%)
- Auckland Metro DHBs: First doses (96%); second doses (94%)
- Waikato DHB: First doses (94%); second doses (90%)
- Bay of Plenty DHB: First doses (93%); second doses (90%)
- Lakes DHB: First doses (92%); second doses (88%)
- Taranaki DHB: First doses (93%); second doses (89%)
- Tairāwhiti DHB: First doses (91%); second doses (86%)
- Hawke’s Bay DHB: First doses (95%); second doses (91%)
- Canterbury DHB: First doses (98%); second doses (95%)
Hospitalisations
Cases in hospital: 44; North Shore: 8; Auckland: 14; Middlemore: 17, Tauranga: 4, Rotorua: 1
Vaccination status of current hospitalisations (Northern Region wards only): Unvaccinated or not eligible (18 cases / 39.1%); partially immunised <7 days from second dose or have only received one dose (9 cases / 19.6%); fully vaccinated at least 7 days before being reported as a case (10 cases / 21.7%); 9 unknown (19.6%).
Average age of current hospitalisations: 52
Cases in ICU or HDU: 5 (2 in Middlemore and 3 in Tauranga).
Cases
- Seven day rolling average of community cases: 36.6
- Number of new community cases: 17
- Number of new cases identified at the border: 23
- Location of new community cases: Auckland (5), Waikato (3), Bay of Plenty (9)
- Number of community cases (total): 11.003 (in current community outbreak)
- Cases epidemiologically linked (total): 8285
- Number of active cases (total): 1,102 (cases identified in the past 21 days and not yet classified as recovered)
- Confirmed cases (total): 14,030
Contacts
- Number of active contacts being managed (total): 5,252
- Percentage who have received an outbound call from contact tracers (to confirm testing and isolation requirements): 83%
- Percentage who have returned at least one result: 77%
Tests
- Number of tests total (last 24 hours): 10,450
- Tests rolling average (last 7 days): 11,387
- Auckland tests total (last 24 hours): 4,396
Wastewater
No unexpected detections
1:17pm - There are 17 new community cases in New Zealand. There are 23 new cases at the border. The MOH says while whole genome sequencing of these cases is expected soon, the likelihood is that Omicron will continue to be the most prevalent variant at our borders
12:57pm - New case numbers continue to rise in Australia as various states battle an outbreak of Omicron.
New South Wales recorded 35,054 new Covid-19 cases and eight deaths, while Victoria recorded 17,636 new cases and 11 deaths.
12:50pm - The Ministry of Health will be announcing the new cases shortly, so far this year the numbers have been low.
12:00pm - The World Health Organisation has played the threat of a new COVID-19 variant found in France.
IHU, as it's been dubbed, was found in a dozen patients living in Forcalquier, southern France.
The index case was a man who'd recently been to Cameroon, central Africa, which - like much of the region - has incredibly low vaccination coverage, making it easier for variants to emerge.
"Respiratory samples collected from seven other SARS-CoV-2-positive patients living in the same geographical area exhibited the same combination of mutations," a paper published online reads.
The variant "has been on our radar," Abdi Mahamud, a WHO incident manager on COVID, said at a press briefing in Geneva on Tuesday.
Mahamud said the variant was only under investigation and was not a "variant of concern."
11:37am - More evidence is emerging the Omicron variant is affecting the upper respiratory tract, causing milder symptoms than previous variants, a World Health Organization official said on Tuesday.
"We are seeing more and more studies pointing out that Omicron is infecting the upper part of the body.
"Unlike the other ones that could cause severe pneumonia," WHO Incident Manager Abdi Mahamud told Geneva-based journalists, saying it could be "good news."
While case numbers have surged to all-time records, the hospitalisation and death rates are often lower than at other phases in the pandemic.
"What we are seeing now is....the decoupling between the cases and the deaths," Mahamud said.
While Omicron seemed to be slipping past antibodies, evidence was emerging that COVID-19 vaccines still provided some protection, by eliciting a second pillar of the immune response from T-cells, Mahamud said.
"Our prediction is protection against severe hospitalization and death (from Omicron) will be maintained," he said.
Reuters
11:32pm - France, Italy, Greece and Sweden all reported record new case numbers while the US reported almost 1 million new coronavirus cases on Monday
The figure was a global record nearly double the country's peak of 505,109 set just a week ago as the highly contagious Omicron variant shows no sign of slowing.
11:15am - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday said that England could withstand a surge in COVID-19 infections without shutting down the economy as Britain reported another record daily high in cases, fuelled by the Omicron variant.
The United Kingdom reported 218,724 new COVID cases on Tuesday, a new record for the number of cases reported on a single day. Over 60 percent of people in intensive care with COVID had not received a vaccine.
11:00am - Unichem Pharmacy Greerton in Tauranga has been named as a high-risk location of interest, the latest in an increasing list of locations of interest in the Bay of Plenty.
Click here for the latest list.
