that soon every case coming in through our border into or managed isolation facilities will be the omicron variant. our immediate job right now must be to slow it down and to delay it from ept ring the new zealand community for as long as we possibly can. >> reporter: but, rosemary, on the bright side, new zealand has become one of the most vaccinated countries in the world with about 90% of its eligible population fully vaccinated. >> that is pretty impressive, isn't it? and across asia, cases also rising in china and south korea. what's the latest on that? >> reporter: right. in china, they reported 57 new locally transmitted cases. most of them reported in the city of she ann. shorts authorities have launched mass testing of its nearly 13 million residents and imposed fresh travel restrictions. the case numbers there in china may sound low, but authorities there are doubling down on a