There are 14 new Covid-19 cases in the community on Tuesday, including one in Upper Hauraki, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield has confirmed.
"One of these is recorded at Whakatîwai and it is a household contact of the earlier reported cases in that household," Bloomfield said.
The household is linked to a prisoner who tested positive for Covid-19 after leaving Auckland on remand. Three others in the house also earlier tested positive.
"Obviously that lower number of 14 cases is encouraging but we do expect the numbers to bounce around a bit based on the number of very close contacts we already have in isolation, mostly household contacts, we would expect another 50 or 60 further cases just from that group over the coming week or two," Bloomfield said.
The total number of cases in the Delta outbreak is now 1085, of which 790 have since recovered.
Today’s number of community cases includes one positive result from Upper Hauraki - a household contact tested yesterday.
So far, 13 of the new community cases are linked to the current outbreak and one is under investigation to find a link.
There are now 15 people with Covid-19 in hospital, including four in intensive care. There are 10 at Middlemore Hospital, four at Auckland City Hospital and one at North Shore Hospital.
There are now 1374 contacts being managed in this outbreak, of which 84 per cent have received at least one Covid-19 test.
As of 1.15pm on Tuesday, there are 136 locations of interest on the Minister of Health website .
On Monday, 8346 tests for Covid-19 were processed in New Zealand, adding to a total of 3.24 million since the pandemic began.
Of these, Bloomfield said nearly 500 swabs were taken on Monday at Wharekawa Marae in Whakatīwai. He added more than 400 results were back already, all of which are negative.
"Still encouraging anyone in that area to go and get tested if you haven't already."
Bloomfield also urged anyone in the area to also get vaccinated for Covid-19.
"Today is a great opportunity to get vaccinated, take your whānau members aged 12 and over with you, remember vaccination is free and we know it is highly protective against becoming very unwell with Covid-19," he said.
On Monday, 50,196 Covid-19 vaccines were administered in New Zealand, made up of 24,522 first doses and 25,674 second doses.
There has been more than 4.76 million doses of the vaccine administered in New Zealand to date.
Meanwhile, there was one new Covid-19 case found at the border – a person who arrived from the US on September 17. The tested positive on arrival in Christchurch.
The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in New Zealand since the pandemic began is now 3739.
There was no unexpected wastewater test results on Tuesday.
Tuesday's update comes as Auckland prepares to move down to Alert Level 3 at 11.59 pm.
Bloomfield was joined by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for the update.
SHARE ME