20 new Covid-19 community cases in Delta outbreak today

September 18, 2021

There are 20 new Covid-19 cases in the community on Saturday, all of which are in Auckland.

The total number of cases in this outbreak is now 1027, made up of 1010 in Auckland and 17 in Wellington.   So far, 641 of these people have recovered.

Of the new cases, one remains unlinked to the current outbreak. Interviews are underway with the person to determine how they are linked to the outbreak.

Meanwhile, the other 19 are all household contacts.

“As noted yesterday, we are expecting some fluctuations in case numbers at this point in the outbreak,” the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

There are now 10 people with Covid-19 in hospital, including three in intensive care. There are six at Middlemore Hospital, three at Auckland City Hospital and one at North Shore Hospital.

There are now 1140 contacts being managed in this outbreak. So far, 94 per cent have been contacted and 82 per cent have received at least one Covid-19 test.

There are currently 142 locations of interest on the Ministry of Health’s website .

Normally busy roads and parks were much quieter than normal on Saturday September 18.

On Friday there were 12,427 tests for Covid-19 taken across the country, including more than 7000 swabs taken in the Auckland region. More than 1500 were essential worker tests. 

“Testing at high levels in Auckland remains an essential part of our outbreak response to detect every community case and stop onwards transmission,” the ministry said.

“We continue to urge anyone in Auckland with cold or flu symptoms, no matter how mild, to come forward to be tested. 

Anyone, with or without symptoms, who lives in a suburb of interest are asked to get a test. These suburbs are Mt Eden, Massey, Māngere, Favona, Papatoetoe, Ōtara, Manurewa. 

On Friday, 60,480 vaccines were administered in New Zealand, made up of 33,048 first doses and 27,432 second doses.

There has been more than 4.63 million doses administered in New Zealand to date.

As well today, there were four new people with Covid-19 found at the border, two of which are historical infections.

One of the people arrived from the United Arab Emirates via Malaysia on September 16. They tested positive on arrival in Auckland.

Another person arrived from India via Serbia Montenegro and the United Arab Emirates on September 16. They too tested positive on arrival in Auckland.

One of the historical cases arrived in Christchurch from Russia via Singapore on September 14. They tested positive on arrival.

The other historical case, who arrived from Sri Lanka on September 11, tested positive on arrival in Auckland.

The new cases bring New Zealand’s total since the pandemic began to 3682.

There were no unexpected wastewater detections to report on Saturday.  

The numbers   were released in a statement on Saturday as there was no 1pm press conference.

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