A positive COVID-19 case in Hawke's Bay has been linked to a summer cricket camp for school-aged kids.
One cricket team is isolating after they came into contact with the positive case while at the event on Sunday at the Clifton County Cricket Club.
"It was quite big news for everyone and unfortunate for those teams that had to stand down because of it," says Will Kennedy from the Manawatū Cricket Club.
The Hawke's Bay Cricket Association says the positive case is an adult associated with a team visiting the region for its cricket camp.
The event attracts hundreds of primary and secondary school kids from all over the North Island.
"It is a concern because you don't know where, what, and how," one person told Newshub.
"It's all outside so we're probably pretty safe I think," another said.
The camp is operating with vaccine passes.
"We're all here vaccinated so we could play the game and enjoy it," one player said.
The association says it relies on all camp participants to follow the rules, which include isolating while waiting for COVID test results.
"It's very, very important that people isolate because if they are positive they would have been infectious, and if they're infectious there's a chance they spread it to others," microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles tells Newshub.
The daily case tally is still relatively low, with 27 new community cases reported on Monday, but that number is expected to climb as people return from holiday.
"We haven't really felt the full force of all our mixing and mingling over the holidays yet," she says.
Border cases have again outnumbered those in the community - there were 33 on Monday. And there are concerns Omicron will soon bust out of MIQ.
"It's about delaying it getting here as long as possible so more and more of us have got those third doses, our children are protected and everyone is ready for it," Wiles adds.
Space in MIQ for the growing number of border cases is rapidly filling up. There are 642 designated quarantine rooms for positive cases around the country and almost half of them are full - mostly with people coming from overseas.
In Auckland, where most border cases arrive, there are 177 rooms left.
Many of the border cases are testing positive on day 0 or day 1 of arrival in New Zealand, showing that even with a negative test 48 hours before they take off, they can be infected with COVID by the time they land.
