There are 215 new community Covid cases and one death, a person in their 50s, to report today.
The Ministry of Health gave the updated Covid case numbers in a media statement this afternoon.
There are new community cases in Northland (4), Auckland (196), Waikato (11), Bay of Plenty (1) and Lakes (2).
There are no additional cases to report today in Wellington, Wairarapa, Canterbury. All Taranaki cases have now recovered.
A community case reported yesterday in MidCentral was officially included in today’s numbers.
With today's case numbers New Zealand has passed the milestone of 10,000 Covid-19 cases, since the beginning of the pandemic nearly two years ago. The total now stands at 10,025. Of these, 7268 (72.5%) are from the current Delta outbreak.
The Ministry of Health also confirmed the death of another person with Covid-19 today.
"Sadly, today we are reporting the Covid-19-related death of a patient at Auckland City Hospital.
"The patient, who was in their 50s, was admitted to Auckland City Hospital on 17 November."
There are 88 Covid patients in hospital, with an average age of 45. Six of these patients are in ICU or HDU.
There were 15,224 vaccine doses administered yesterday, made up of 4777 first doses and 10,447 second doses. To date, 91% of eligible people in New Zealand have had their first dose and 84% are fully vaccinated.
Updated advice from the Covid-19 Vaccine Technical Advisory Group (CVTAG) on the third primary dose for immunocompromised patients has been published on the Ministry of Health website.
In October, a third primary dose of the Pfizer vaccine was recommended for individuals who are severely immunocompromised, because they are at higher risk of severe outcomes from Covid-19 and might not produce a sufficiently strong immune response after two doses of the vaccine.
Updated CV TAG recommendations include information about the individuals who should be offered a third primary dose, with dialysis patients now eligible along with the groups already identified. Guidance on how to accommodate biologics and immunosuppressive therapies has also been added and dosage thresholds removed to support clinical discretion.
Advice for clinicians on the guidance is available through the Immunisation Advisory Centre, and this information will be updated periodically through the Immunisation Handbook.
A third primary dose for severely immunocompromised people different from a booster. A third primary dose of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine for severely immunocompromised people is off-label usage and includes prescription and consent obligations on the prescriber, the vaccinator, and the patient.
