There are 56 Covid-19 cases in the community today and officials have confirmed the virus is in the Wellington region. 

The Ministry confirmed it is reporting a case in the Hutt Valley area of the Wellington region, with a link established to the Lakes DHB area. 

The case is self-isolating, and case interviews have identified a small number of household contacts, who are also isolating with testing arranged. 

Six new cases of Omicron have been detected in recent returnees in managed isolation and quarantine facilities. 

That takes the total number of international arrivals to New Zealand with the Omicron variant to 28. 

"Health and MIQ teams have been carefully planning for Omicron cases at the border and will continue to manage all arrivals cautiously," the Ministry of Health said today. 

"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." 

The location of today's new community cases are: Auckland (33), Waikato (6), Bay of Plenty (11), Lakes (4), Taranaki (1), Hutt Valley (1) 

There are 51 people in hospital, 7 in ICU as of today. 

The average age of current hospitalisations is 50. 

There were 20,328 total vaccine doses administered yesterday, including 1,860 first doses and 6,273 second doses. To date, 94 per cent of eligible people in New Zealand have had their first dose and 90 per cent are double-dosed. 

South Canterbury DHB is expected to become the eleventh DHB to hit the 90% fully vaccinated milestone later today based on uptake among its eligible population, with just 59 doses to go as of 11.59pm yesterday. 

Next in line to reach the 90 per cent milestone based on uptake by their eligible populations are Hawkes Bay DHB (1,308 doses off); and Waikato (2,866 doses off). 

Minister Chris Hipkins yesterday confirmed a number of changes that would impact managed isolation, the border and 5-11 year olds. 

The young age group will now be able to get vaccinated, with their parents' permission, from January 17, while the proposed re-opening of the border on the same day has been pushed out until the end of February. 

That's meant at least 27,000 people have their travel plans overturned with the extension, labelled soul-crushing by the tourism sector, and sad but necessary by others. 

Anyone staying in MIQ will also have their stay extended from seven to 10 days in light of the Omicron strain of Covid currently ravaging other parts of the world, including Australia and United Kingdom. 

Otago University professor of public health Michael Baker told RNZ one other measure should be considered: limiting or even halting arrivals from certain countries with high rates of Omicron. 

"We should look at the [positive case] numbers coming in every day... [if] we're getting potentially 10 or 20 travellers a day coming from some countries or regions, that would just swamp our MIQ system, so we've got to do something to turn that tap down." 

Omicron is widely thought to be a very fast-spreading variant but there is no consensus yet on its severity. 

The availability of booster shots was also brought forward, from six months to four, and more than 80 per cent of vaccinated people will be eligible for the third shot by the end of February. 

Hipkins said this to ensure protection in the lead up to the winter season.