The Ministry is reporting 2365 new community cases of Covid in New Zealand today and two deaths at Auckland hospitals.
They are a patient in Middlemore Hospital and another patient in their 70s at Auckland City Hospital.
Location of new community cases: Northland (50), Auckland (1,692), Waikato (136), Bay of Plenty (42), Lakes (24), Hawke’s Bay (23), MidCentral (14), Whanganui (5), Taranaki (4), Tairāwhiti (9), Wairarapa (8), Capital and Coast (89), Hutt Valley (19), Nelson Marlborough (58), Canterbury (105), South Canterbury (1), Southern (86).
Here is today's breakdown of the total cases in the Southern DHB area:
Of today's 86 new cases, 4 were in the Central Otago District, 48 were in Dunedin, 3 were in Invercargill, 25 were in Queenstown-Lakes District, 1 was in the Southland District and 5 were in the Waitaki District.
There were no new cases in the Clutha or Gore Districts.
"As of 1pm Monday 21 February there are 239 close contacts isolating throughout the Southern district. 70 of these are in the Queenstown-Lakes district and 157 are in Dunedin. "
There are also 12 new cases at the border today, the ministry confirmed.
Some 116 people are in hospitals throughout the county - the majority in Auckland - and one person is ICU or a high dependency unit.
In the last 24 hours, 27,109 tests were processed.
"As this demand has grown, some Covid-19 test results for Auckland and Waikato are currently taking longer to process at laboratories. The use of rapid antigen testing, alongside PCR testing, will improve this process at a time of exceptional demand in phase 2, provided the Community Testing Centre queues are freely available for those who really need a test," the Ministry said.
More than 2.1 million booster shots have now been given nationally, with more than 15,000 administered yesterday.
The Ministry said getting the booster dose greatly reduced the chances of a person of getting severely ill and needing hospital care if they test positive for Covid.
"If it’s been three months since your last dose, please book your booster today."
The Omicron variant had now spread to all DHBs, "but all of us can play our part to slow the spread of the virus, help protect our most vulnerable people from being infected, and ensure our health system is able to manage extra demand for services".
Anyone with any cold or flu symptoms that could be Covid is asked to get a test and isolate at home until a negative result is returned and they are feeling well.
"Regardless of your test result, it is still important that anyone who is unwell stays home to reduce the spread of other viruses."
The most common early symptom of the Omicron variant is a cough, followed by a sore throat and/or runny nose.
