There are 49 new community cases of Covid-19, but no new Omicron cases in the community to report, the Ministry of Health has announced.

In today's statement, the Ministry said there are 10 Omicron cases to report among recent arrivals at the border, bringing the total at the border to 88.

But it said there were no community Omicron cases to report and all the close contacts to the two cases who were in the community this week have so far tested negative.

The Ministry said microbiologists have advised that the risk of transmission from the Omicron border case announced on Wednesday was low.

The six close contacts of the case who attended the Hidden Lakes festival have all tested negative for Covid-19 and the Ministry said this meant there was no public health risk associated with this event.

"Contact tracing has now identified 88 close contacts for this case. This includes close contacts identified via case interviews and from locations of interest. 80 of these contacts have been reached, all are isolating and have been tested. All results received to date have been negative. Contact tracers are working urgently to contact the eight close contacts who are yet to be reached."

All eight close contacts of the border-related Omicron case in an Air NZ crew member have returned negative tests and there are no locations of interest associated with this case.

The Ministry said it was now assuming all recent arrivals who test positive have the Omicron variant, so it will now prioritise whole genome sequencing for any positive cases in border-related workers and their families.

"This is where there is the greatest risk of Omicron entering the community. This new approach will help to ensure the risk of any community transmission of Omicron remains low. These samples will be treated as urgent and tested within 12 hours of being received by the laboratory."

The Ministry said 46 people with the coronavirus are in hospital, with eight in intensive care. The average age of the patients is 57.

There were also 13 new cases identified at the border today.

Yesterday there were 60 new community cases reported in New Zealand. There have also been two cases of the Omicron variant in the community confirmed in the past two days.

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