41 new Covid-19 community cases in NZ today

October 16, 2021

There are 41 new Covid-19 cases in the community on Saturday, including 40 in Auckland and one in Waikato, the Ministry of Health has confirmed.

The Waikato case is a household contact of two existing cases. They were already in a quarantine.

"Waikato DHB is continuing to carry out regionwide testing, to help rule out any undetected community spread of Covid-19," the ministry said.

As well, one of the new cases was an Auckland woman associated with the two women who travelled to Northland then tested positive for the virus. 

The ministry said the new case wasn't infectious while she was in Northland between October 2 and 8, with her infectious period has been determined as beginning after she returned to Auckland.

"Three household contacts and two other contacts have been identified by public health officials. These contacts follow a visit to a private home in Auckland and shared transport to the testing centre," the ministry said.

In total, 20 of Saturday's new cases are linked to the current outbreak, including 13 household contacts.

The remaining 21 are unlinked but are under investigation to find a link.

The total number of cases in this Delta outbreak is now 1895, of which 1247 have since recovered.

There are now 31 people with Covid-19 in hospital, including six in intensive care or a high dependency unit. There are 17 people with the virus at Middlemore Hospital, 11 at Auckland City Hospital and three at North Shore Hospital.

There are now 2032 contacts linked to the outbreak, of which 83 per cent have been contacted and 75 per cent have received at least one test.

As of 1.30pm on Saturday, there are 451 locations of interest on the Ministry of Health's website , including seven new exposure sites.

On Friday, there were 24,285 tests for Covid-19 processed throughout the country, adding to a total of 3.75 million since the pandemic began.

On vaccines, there were 69,663 doses administered on Friday, made up of 14,037 first doses and 55,626 second doses.

In total, more than 6.18 million doses have been administered in New Zealand.

Saturday's update comes as mass vaccination events are taking place throughout the country.

Watch the Super Saturday Vaxathon live on TVNZ2 from 12pm to 7pm, or online  here .

"Vaccination remains our number one protection against Covid-19. The Vaxathon is encouraging New Zealanders – particularly young Māori, Pacific and people living with a disability to get vaccinated," the ministry said.

As of 1pm, around 70,000 people have been vaccinated.

Meanwhile, on wastewater testing there has been further positive Covid-19 detections in samples taken from Raglan.

"This reflects known cases in the area who have been granted exemptions to isolate at home. However, symptomatic locals are encouraged to please get tested," the ministry said.
 
There have also been positive detections in wastewater from Beachlands and Pukekohe. These followed earlier detections at both sites on October 8. People in these areas with symptoms are also asked to please get tested.
 
As well, people in Wellsford are urged to get tested after two positive detections in wastewater samples. Further samples are currently being analysed.

"There are testing stations open today at both Wellsford and Warkworth, and a pop-up testing centre is expected to open on Monday in Mangawhai." the ministry said.

There were also two new cases to report at the border on Saturday, both of which arrived from the US on October 1. They both tested positive on arrival in Christchurch.

As well, a previously reported community case has been identified as a duplicate and therefore removed from the case tally.

With these changes, the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in New Zealand since the pandemic began is now 4580.

The update comes as Auckland, Northland and parts of Waikato are at Alert Level 3, with the rest of the country at Level 2.

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