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National | Covid-19 Testing

No further community cases of Covid-19

The government has confirmed there are no further community cases of Covid-19 at this point.

Retesting of the Papatoetoe High School community is still underway with at least half already retested. All results that are in have all come back negative.

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says "Overall, the school community has been responding really well and again I want to thank them for their patience and the leadership that has been shown throughout."

"Nobody invites Covid-19 into their community. But when that happens and a community responds as positively as this one has, it certainly helps in our overall response."

Health director-general Dr Ashley Bloomfield says yesterday's news of additional cases was unsettling but people should not be alarmed.

"I'm confident the system is working as it should under Alert Level 1 and there is indeed a lot of work underway," he says.

Overall there are now 11 cases associated with the Papatoetoe cluster and all these cases are in the Auckland quarantine hotel.

Vaccinations

Some 40 border workers from Christchurch Airport have been vaccinated today as the government's vaccine programme started rolling out in the South Island.

The border workers included aviation security workers, cleaners, police, customs workers and health protection officers who screen passengers arriving on international flights.

About 20 per cent of Aotearoa's 12,000 border and quarantine workers are based in Canterbury and all frontline staff are expected to receive their jab over the next few weeks.