Wednesday January 12

There are 28 new cases of Covid-19 today and two people with the virus have died.

A man in his 30s died at home on January 5. He was tested for Covid-19 post-death and returned a positive result.

In addition, a man is his 60s with Covid-19 died at Auckland's Middlemore Hospital on Sunday.

Of these new community cases, 17 are in Auckland, 1 in Waikato, 4 in Bay of Plenty, 4 in Lakes District, 1 in Christchurch and 1 in South Canterbury.

In total, there are 4 community cases in Canterbury and 1 in South Canterbury, including the 2 cases announced yesterday.

Three of these five cases will be formally added to the Ministry of Health's case numbers tomorrow.

An infographic of today's Covid-19 numbers. Photo: Re:

There are 31 people in hospital with Covid-19, 2 of those people are in intensive care or high dependency units.

The average age of people currently in hospital is 56.

40 percent of New Zealand's eligible population have now had a booster shot.

95 percent have had their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine and 92 percent have had a second dose.

88 percent of the eligible Māori population have had their first dose and 82 percent have had both doses. 

Click here for a list of updated locations of interest.

Omicron update

To date, there are 196 Omicron cases that have been detected at the border since December 1, and 11 cases of Delta.  

There are also 217 Covid-19 cases caught at the border that are still undergoing Whole Genome Sequencing. The expectation is that the majority of these cases will be the Omicron variant.

During this time, more than 18,000 people have arrived and been processed through MIQ facilities.

Top image: Cars line up at Covid-19 testing station on Orchard Rd in Christchurch on November 18, 2021. Photo: LightRocket/Getty Images.

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