Alert Level 3 confirmed for Waikato's upper Hauraki

September 22, 2021

Dr Ashley Bloomfield says high Covid-19 testing rates and negative results have led to the move.

The upper Hauraki region in Waikato, where a remand prisoner and three of his household contacts tested positive for Covid-19, is at Alert Level 3, Dr Ashley Bloomfield has confirmed. 

The Director-General of Health said the change happened at 11.59pm Tuesday under the Health Order, as Auckland was moving to Alert Level 3, but he wanted to make it clear for people. 

The Whakatīwai region was put in a bespoke Alert Level 4 arrangement on Monday after Covid-19 cases were reported. 

Bloomfield said the upper Hauraki region’s alert level would be reviewed daily. 

“Based on the high level of testing and the negative results in the upper Hauraki region, it has also now moved to Alert Level 3 along with the rest of Auckland,” he confirmed.

The area dropped from its bespoke Level 4 snap lockdown, back to Level 3 but that was news to some locals.

He said the move to Alert Level 3 “has been made possible because of high levels of testing, great community support for the restrictions on movement, and the well-contained community there in that region”. 

So far, drive-through testing at two marae in the area had collected 403 swabs, all of which tested negative for Covid-19. 

Tests undertaken at Mangatangi School, where two students connected to the remand prisoner had tested Covid-positive, had also come back negative, Bloomfield said. So far, 90 of the 93 contacts at the school had been tested. 

The Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield gave the latest update on the outbreak.

A further 1700 tests in the Waikato region have also been collected, and all are negative for the virus. 

The Section 70 notice for people who may have come in contact with the Covid-19 cases in the region is still in place, Bloomfield said. 

That means people affected by the order are still required to get tested and isolate at home until Friday 11.59pm. A decision on that duration of the order would be made in the coming days, Bloomfield said. 

Those affected include people who, at any time between September 8 and 20, lived at or visited a household, or worked indoors in the northern Hauraki area. 

The section 70 direction does not apply to anyone who drove through the Upper Hauraki area during that time period and did not stop, excluding visits to petrol stations or truck stops.

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