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National | Covid-19 Testing

Covid case numbers jump to 71 today, all in Auckland

Public health director Dr Caroline McElnay reports 71 new cases, all in Auckland.

This takes the total in the current outbreak to 1,790, with 1189 cases recovered.

Some 43 of today's cases have been epidemiologically linked, with 28 yet to be linked. Investigations are underway.

Of yesterday's cases, 25 have had exposure events and 30 were in isolation during their infectious period.

"Today's new cases are sobering but not unexpected because of where we are in the outbreak," Dr McElnay says.

There are 33 people in hospital with Covid-19. There are four in North Shore, 17 in Middlemore, 11 in Auckland, and one in Palmerston North hospitals. Five are in ICU.

There is one case at the border in managed isolation.

Raglan and Te Awamutu update

Covid-19 was detected in wastewater samples from Te Awamutu and Raglan, with follow-up samples being taken. A pop-up testing station is also being set up in Te Awamutu, operating from 2pm to 5pm today.

Waikato DHB Public Health staff are investigating whether the wastewater detection represents a new current case or a recovered case who may be shedding the virus. In the meantime, they say anyone in Te Awamutu who has Covid-19 symptoms or has visited a location of interest should get tested immediately.

Covid-19 was also detected in a sample from Raglan on Tuesday. This follows earlier detections from samples taken last week. Anyone in Raglan with symptoms or has been at a location of interest at the relevant time is being asked to get tested.

Two community cases in Waikato reported yesterday remain unlinked but some potential connections have been identified and investigations continue. Results of whole genome sequencing are expected tonight.

Auckland update

Auckland health officials continue to carry out workplace testing, to help rule out any undetected community spread. They encourage essential workers who work at Level 4 and people in workplaces permitted to operate under Alert Level 3, including construction, hospitality, education, retail workers, and community healthcare workers to be tested regularly.

But any groups already undertaking surveillance testing, such as workers crossing alert level boundaries or border workers, do not need to participate in this additional testing.

There are 20 community testing centres available for testing across Auckland today, some with extended hours. A full list of testing centres can be found on the Healthpoint website.

There are eight suburbs of interest, where people with or without symptoms are asked to get tested. They are:
·        Clover Park
·        Mângere   
·        Favona   
·        Manurewa
·        Mount Wellington/Sylvia Park
·        Henderson
·        Papakura
·        Red Beach

People who don't have symptoms and get a one-off Covid-19 test for surveillance purposes do not need to isolate while they wait for their result.

Vaccination update

To date, 6,044,813 vaccine doses have been administered. Of those, 3,496,757  are first doses and 2,554,056 people are fully vaccinated.

So far, 87% of Auckland's eligible people have received their first dose (1,252,558) and 66% (941,523) are fully vaccinated.

Vaccination rates in Waikato remained high yesterday with 6,327 people getting a dose.

In Northland, people are asked to keep checking the Ministry of Health website for locations of interest in the region.

Today there are seven community testing sites and eight community vaccination centres operating. Details of locations and operating hours can be found on the Healthpoint website.

In Northland, 3,464 doses of COVID-19 vaccine were given yesterday - 1,215 first doses and 2,249 second doses. To date, there have been more than 200,000 doses administered in Northland.