New Zealand is rolling the "roulette wheel in the casino of Covid" each day as to whether the highly-infectious Omicron variant leaks out of managed isolation and into the community, an expert says. 

There have been a total of 22 cases of Omicron picked up at the border so far, with genome sequencing detecting a further nine in international arrivals on Monday. 

Cabinet expected to meet virtually this afternoon to discuss ways of countering the newest Covid variant. 

There are 69 community Covid cases today. 

There are 59 in Auckland, seven in Waikato, two in the Bay of Plenty and one in Taranaki. 

Covid-19 modelling experts told RNZ that the highly-transmissible Omicron variant poses a serious risk to a largely unrestricted summer. 

More cases would keep arriving at the border, increasing the chance one would leak out into the community, Te Pūnaha Matatini complex systems researcher Dr Dion O'Neale said. 

"At the moment most of those [MIQ] infections will be Omicron from now on, purely because Omicron is most of the cases in countries that people are coming back to New Zealand from. 

"At some point, it does become a matter of time until that gets out into the community," O'Neale said. 

Yesterday's statement said the government's health and MIQ teams had been carefully planning for Omicron cases at the border and were "cautiously" managing all arrivals. 

"This includes isolation and testing requirements for all new arrivals, robust infection and prevention control and PPE measures at airports and MIQ facilities, and frequent surveillance testing of staff who have any contact with recent international returnees." 

Passengers on flights with Omicron cases are also required to complete all 10 days at an MIQ facility, rather than spending the final three days in self-isolation at home. 

But Melbourne University epidemiologist Professor Tony Blakely says MIQ is not perfect, telling Newstalk ZB this the risk of Omicron getting into the community was now seen as very high. 

Each day in New Zealand was a "roll of the roulette wheel in the casino of Covid". 

Blakely said every time a new Omicron person was found in MIQ, there's a risk it's going to jump out. 

He said even vaccinating all workers wasn't a great measure to prevent a person from carrying Omicron out. 

Meanwhile Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) documents have revealed 25 people successfully escaped from an MIQ facility, and another 27 tried to, in the past two years. 

Fourteen of those incidents happened during October, the same month in which more than 150 complaints were laid about things such as food, cleanliness and exercise. 

The data, obtained under the Official Information Act (OIA), shows October was the worst month for absconders and complaints since MIQ was established in 2020. 

Yesterday there were 56 people with Covid-19 in hospital, including six in intensive care or high dependency units. 

Ten were in North Shore Hospital, 26 in Auckland, 15 in Middlemore, two in Waikato and three in Tauranga. The average age of the patients was 53.