New Zealand

The Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta said the latest donation to COVAX will also support vaccination programmes in developing countries, including in parts of the Pacific and in Africa where immunisation rates are low.

New Zealand is contributing a further 7.3 million vaccines to COVAX including 5.8 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine and 1.5 million doses of Janssen vaccine.

Through New Zealand's Advance Purchase Agreement (APA) with Pfizer, paediatric vaccine doses are also being provided to countries in Polynesia.

The study, which is led by Victoria University, will ask nearly 8,700 people over the age of 16, what it was like to live with Covid-19.     

Pacific team leader Tuiloma Lina Samu is making sure people are able to take part in the survey in many Pacific languages. 

“If you are willing to take part, you can go through an interview with our Pacific researchers to fa’amatala, to go deeper into what you experienced when you went through Covid, as well your family members.”

The event was due to be held from 18-20 March at Western Springs Park and marked the 30th anniversary of Pasifika.

The festival can only be delivered at the orange or green Covid-19 Protection Framework settings.

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff said the cancellation is disappointing but the right call given the risks posed with Omicron spreading rapidly in the community.

Photo PMN News  Caption: Pasifika Festival

In a statement, the Ministry of Health said the new cases are in Northland (16), Auckland (340), Waikato (48), Lakes (13), Bay of Plenty (14), Lakes (13), Taranaki (1), Hutt Valley (7), Capital & Coast (4), and Southern (3).

The ministry said the number of cases would continue to fluctuate from day-to-day but "our expectation is that cases will continue to increase in the coming weeks".

They say more could and should have been done to avoid the crisis facing the 2021-2022 harvest season.

From 28 February, New Zealanders will be able to arrive back from Australia and expatriates from the rest of the world can return from 14 March.

Aotearoa was expected to open to foreigners from visa-waiver countries such as the United States no later than July.

For those who benefit from New Zealand's Recognised Seasonal Employers (RSE) Scheme, the move had come "too little too late".

Community Law Aotearoa blames the government for blocking scores of people from getting the official help that is available to other Afghans with visas.

Chief executive Sue Moroney also says Immigration New Zealand had just two officers processing their visas, and the whole situation "flies in the face" of the court's intentions.

The Auckland MIQ worker returned a positive test result as part of routine testing.

The Ministry of Health has now confirmed that the worker has caught the Omicron variant.

More than 50 close contacts have so far been identified.

All of the case's seven household contacts identified have already been contacted, isolated and tested, and returned a negative result.

The case and one household contact are now isolating in a MIQ facility. The remaining household contacts are isolating at locations in Auckland and Taupō.

He did not show up to a court appearance at the Te Kūiti District Court on Wednesday and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

His lawyer Garth O'Brien told the court he had not heard from Phillips since he informed him of his court date.

Judge Phillip Crayton issued a warrant for his arrest.

Waikato West Police area commander Inspector Will Loughrin said Phillips is believed to be with his three children.

He would not say what police are doing to find him.

But Inspector Loughrin said they are receiving useful information from members of the public.

The highly transmissible variant has rapidly spread around the globe and New Zealand has dodged a community outbreak so far.

But with the escalating number of overseas returnees testing positive, there are fears a new wave of the virus could be out in the community within weeks.

Epidemiologist and University of Otago professor Michael Baker called the variant a "huge threat" and said it was not a matter of if there was an outbreak, but when.

The research, by Unitec's Dr Hoa Nguyen and Senior Lecturer David Kenkel, is based on the lived experiences of undocumented Tuvaluan migrants and their children, and forms a detailed picture of the desperate situation they face.

With assistance from the Tuvaluan Auckland Community Trust, the pair of academics conducted interviews with undocumented migrants and compiled the information they uncovered into this report.