There are 25 new Covid-19 cases in the community on Monday, the Ministry of Health has announced.
Of those eight are the Omicron variant of the virus.
Two of the new Omicron cases are in the Nelson region, five are in Auckland and one is in Palmerston North.
The ministry said to date there are 19 community cases of Covid-19 linked to what it is calling the January Omicron cluster.
Of Monday's 25 community cases, four are in Northland, 13 are in Auckland, four are in Waikato, one is in Rotorua, one is in Palmerston North and two are in Nelson Tasman (Figures for Auckland, Palmerston North and Nelson Tasman include the Omicron cases).
Medical professionals say the health workforce shortage is already in crisis and isolation rules could result in that situation deteriorating further.
There are also two historical cases of Covid-19 in Canterbury.
The ministry said the two new Omicron cases in the Nelson region are contacts of existing cases. One of them was announced on Sunday but has been added to Monday's numbers.
The five Omicron cases in Auckland have been linked to one of the family events.
The new Omicron case in Palmerston North is a household contact of the Omicron case announced on January 19. They were already isolating.
"The number of cases and contacts are expected to grow given the highly transmissible nature of Omicron and as we learn more from case interviews," the ministry said in a statement.
Northland's four new community cases are in Kaitāia. They are all contacts of previously reported cases.
Senior staff at Middlemore are expecting cases to start surging in the coming weeks and peak in about a month's time.
The four new community cases in Waikato are all linked to previously reported cases. Two are in Hamilton and one is from Atiamuri. The ministry said the location of the remaining case is under investigation.
The new community case in Rotorua is linked to an earlier case.
Ten people are in hospital with Covid-19, zero are in an ICU or high dependency ward.
Fifty cases at the border were also announced by the ministry on Monday.
They had arrived in New Zealand between January 8 and 22, travelling from Fiji, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Philippines, US, UK, Australia, Singapore, Canada, India, Germany, Ireland and Qatar.
Full travel history was still to be obtained for five of them.
The border cases had tested positive for the virus between day 0 and 12.
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