There are 744 new cases of Covid in the New Zealand community today, including nine in Canterbury.
Today's new community cases are in Northland (43), Auckland (535), Waikato (69), Bay of Plenty (8), Lakes (10), Hawke’s Bay (1), MidCentral (6), Taranaki (2), Tairāwhiti (7), Wairarapa (1), Capital and Coast (5), Hutt Valley (1), Nelson Marlborough (9), Canterbury (9), Southern (30).
It is the second consecutive day of record case numbers. The high numbers - and resulting queues at testing stations - have led to a change in the rules, with health bosses saying only get tested under specific circumstances.
Tonight's shift to phase 2 of the Government's Omicron response plan comes in anticipation of a wave of thousands of cases of the variant sweeping through the country.
There are currently 40 people with Covid-19 in hospital, including two in Christchurch, but none are in ICU or HDU.
The cases in hospital are located in Whangārei 1; North Shore 4; Middlemore 13; Auckland 19; Wellington 1, and Christchurch 2.
Yesterday there were 981 new cases in the community. The day before there were 810, and the day before that there were 454.
Additionally today, there were 19 cases detected at the border, including three which are historical.
The ministry has also extended the deadline for the health and disability sector to have their vaccine booster until 11:59pm on February 24, 2022.
The new dates also applied to any workers covered by the health mandated dates because of the work they undertake in corrections, Fire and Emergency New Zealand, defence, education and police.
"People who are vaccinated are less likely to get seriously unwell or be hospitalised than people who haven't been vaccinated," the ministry said.
"The booster vaccine offers a high level of protection against Omicron, so if it's been three months since you got your second dose, please get your booster as soon as possible."
