The Government is appealing for any person with symptoms to get tested for Covid-19 to ensure absolute confidence there are no undetected cases in the community, Director of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield told media on Sunday.
"It is imperative anyone with symptoms, especially in Tāmaki Makaurau, does get tested," Dr Bloomfield said
"Please, don't just put this down to a cold or put this down to something minor."
The Finance Minister says officials must know there is no more Covid in the community if restrictions are to be lifted
It comes as the number of tests in the last 24 hours dropped to 9238, with just over a third of those in Auckland. The rolling average for the last week sits about 15,000 a day.
"With Delta, there is no room for complacency," Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson said.
"We want to see testing numbers in Auckland increase."
Robertson said there were usually lower testing numbers at the weekend. However, he wanted rates to remain high.
"That is why there will be a comprehensive plan for testing that will be rolled out in the next couple of weeks in Auckland that includes not only testing of contacts... but also of people moving across boundaries and making sure all of our essential workers and MIQ are all being tested regularly."
"It is a small inconvenience to give us all the confidence that we're managing the outbreak down."
After announcing there were 20 new community cases, Dr Bloomfield said there were fewer people with symptoms in the community as a result of lockdown.
He added that analysis of testing showed over 20 per cent of the Auckland population has been tested, and in areas and populations where they wanted high levels of testing, that percentage was higher.
Dr Bloomfield said it was important over the next week that "we are absolutely confident there are no undetected cases in the community".
"The best way to find that is for anyone symptomatic to get tested."
"The second is that we will be wanting to prevent any leakages in Auckland across the boundary, whatever that boundary might be.
"I would like to stress the importance of sustaining good levels of testing to give us a good level of confidence that we are finding any cases of Covid-19 out there."
SHARE ME