Covid update: 79 community cases, no new ones in South Island

There are 79 new community cases of Covid-19 to report today, the Ministry of Health says.

The cases were revealed in a statement from the ministry just after 1pm today.

Auckland has the majority of the new cases with 75 and there are four new cases in Waikato.

"As at 10am, 46 of these cases are linked - including 24 household contacts - and 33 remain unlinked, with investigations continuing to help determine their connection to the outbreak. "

There are currently 2759 cases in the current outbreak.

There are 37 Covid patients in hospital and their average age is 45. The number is up on yesterday's number by two.

Four cases are in intensive care or high dependency units.

There have been not unexpected detections in recent wastewater tests.

Yesterday 10,660 people were vaccinated, 3492 were first doses and 7168 second doses.

There have been 3,646,869 (87%) first doses of the vaccine administered and 2,987,389 (71%) second doses.

There has been a decrease in hospitalisation from Covid-19 following a number of discharges over the weekend. 

This reflects some instances where individuals were identified as having Covid-19 when presenting for other issues and were admitted for a short period while their other issues were managed.

The average age of hospitalisations in the current outbreak is 45 years, however over the past fortnight the average age of hospitalisations is 38. This reflects a trend of younger hospitalisations overall, with only six percent of the 372 hospital admissions in this outbreak being amongst the 65 and over age group. 

There are no new confirmed cases of Covid-19 to report in Northland, with cases in the region, associated with this outbreak, remaining at seven.

However, people living in Northland are urged to remain vigilant and get tested if they have any symptoms that could be Covid-19.

"We would like to remind people that, as standard protocol, locations of interest are deep cleaned to ensure there is no ongoing risk of transmission from the premise."

The Northland region remains at Alert Level 2

Auckland public health officials continue to urge residents of the North Shore suburbs of Redvale and Rosedale to get tested as soon as possible if they have even mild symptoms of Covid-19, even if they are vaccinated.

This follows high positivity rates of more than 6 percent in Redvale and 3.8 percent in Rosedale.

This testing will help to provide assurance that any undetected spread of Covid-19 in these communities is identified as quickly as possible.

The four new cases of Covid-19 in Waikato today were all expected and linked and were in isolation throughout their infectious period.

All new cases are in Te Awamutu/Kihikihi area and isolating currently at home with public health support.

This brings total cases for Waikato during this outbreak to 91, with six cases for which epidemiological links remain under investigation.

Two bakeries have been added as locations of interest in Tokoroa, connected with the person who stayed at a residential address overnight in the town before flying to Blenheim from Rotorua Airport.

Interviews are continuing with this case who is currently isolating in Blenheim.

The person’s three close contacts, including two house household contacts, are due for further testing this week, following their initial negative test results over the weekend.

"It is important to reiterate at this stage there have been no further Covid-19 cases reported in the region."

People living in Tokoroa, Blenheim and Nelson, Tasman and Marlborough are asked to monitor the Ministry of Health’s locations of interest page, which is regularly updated.

"We are also asking residents in Marlborough, Nelson and Tasman with symptoms – no matter how mild – to please get tested, even if they are vaccinated."