[Source: NZ Herald]

There are 35 new cases of Covid-19 in the community today and 24 cases that were detected at MIQ facilities, the Ministry of Health has announced.

The data comes as one expert warns that the highly infectious Omicron variant could leak from MIQ facilities in a matter of weeks – potentially causing an outbreak by the end of this month.

Officials did not say home many of today’s 24 border cases are the Omicron variant.

Yesterday, however, officials said it can be assumed that Omicron is now the dominant variant among arrivals who test positive for the virus.

Four of today’s border cases arrived from Australia, two were from the United States and one was from the United Kingdom.

Of the new community cases, 18 are in Auckland, 13 in Bay of Plenty, three in the Lakes district and one in Waikato.

There were six border cases from Qatar, one each from Pakistan and Fiji and three from United Arab Emirates. There were three border cases from Singapore, two from India and one from Spain.

There are 37 cases in hospital, one less than yesterday.

The vast majority of hospitalised cases are in Auckland, with four at North Shore Hospital, 14 at Auckland Hospital and 13 and Middlemore. Additionally, there are five hospitalisations in Tauranga and one in Waikato.

Three of the cases are in intensive care or high-dependency units – two at Middlemore and one in Tauranga.

The number of booster doses continues to increase, with the requirement for booster shots changed this week from six months to four months.

There were 43,219 booster doses administered in the past 24 hours, roughly 2000 more than yesterday’s total.