Scroll down for a recap of 1 NEWS' live updates on Saturday morning's news from day 11 of the nationwide Level 4 lockdown. Ongoing live coverage can be found here.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
- The whole country remains at Alert Level 4 . Parts of the country south of the Auckland boundary will move to Alert Level 3 at 11.59pm on Tuesday, August 31. Auckland and Northland, meanwhile, will remain at Alert Level 4. Auckland is likely to remain at the current settings for another two weeks, Jacinda Ardern confirmed on Friday.
- The total number of cases associated with the current outbreak is now 429 after 82 new cases were announced Saturday. All the new cases in Auckland. Wellington case numbers remain at 14.
- The list of locations of interest continues to be updated every two hours.
2.45pm: Several Covid-19 testing centres in Auckland are reporting that Covid contacts are trying to get their day 12 tests early. More on that here.
1.47pm: About 300 cases have been genomically sequenced by ESR and are linked to the current outbreak.
Meanwhile, a total of 31,757 individual contacts have been identified, the ministry says.
Eighty one per cent have had a test, but most others are not yet due for a test.
1.35pm: The Ministry of Health says up to 13 people who got their Covid-19 vaccines in the Canterbury DHB region earlier in August may have gotten a lower dose than intended .
Authorities stress no patient harm would have come from the incident. Of the group of 13, 12 have been contacted and are booked in for another dose of the vaccine. The Ministry of Health is in the process of contacting the remaining person.
The Ministry of Health says it had “worked closely” with the vaccination team in Canterbury. The provider will also be implementing improvements and additional training for staff.
1.21pm: An update on the Amberlea Home and Hospital Care Facility in Warkworth, where a fully vaccinated staff member had worked two shifts in the dementia ward while unknowingly having Covid-19.
All patients in the ward have been tested. Of the 13 swabs taken, 12 have returned negative results. The remaining one test is pending and results are expected today.
1.17pm: There are 82 new community cases of Covid-19, all in Auckland.
This brings the total number of cases in the community outbreak to 429. There are 14 cases in Wellington, and the remaining 415 are in Auckland.
Of the current community cases, 25 cases are in hospital. Twenty-three are in a stable condition in a ward, and two cases are in a stable condition in ICU.
1.12pm: While we wait for the 1pm numbers, why not take up the Prime Minister's offer and create some memes ?
The Prime Minister's recent internet fame hadn't gotten past her.
1.06pm: New South Wales has recorded 1035 new locally-acquired Covid-19 cases in the 24 hours to 8pm, local time, yesterday.
NSW Health says it was told of two deaths of people who had the virus: a woman in her 70s from Sydney and a woman in her 80s from western Sydney.
12.50pm: Tāmaki Makaurau is dotted with incredible maunga. For many living in Alert Level 4, it's providing some sort of freedom from the confines of the home.
The city’s volcanoes are iconic, majestic and in lockdown, they're crawling with more life than ever.
The Tūpuna Maunga Authority, which governs 14 ancestral maunga, says it sees the community enjoying the mountains in increased numbers during lockdown. Pedestrian access remains open in lockdown, but its facilities like playgrounds and sports grounds are closed.
Seven Sharp's Michael Holland visited two maunga to find out, from a safe distance, why people were flocking to it in a socially distant manner.
12.40pm: There's no scheduled press conference today. Instead, the Ministry of Health will be releasing today's Covid-19 case numbers in a written statement.
Will that statement be sent out on time at 1pm? We'll find out in about 20 minutes...
Here's Newsroom Marc Daalder at 1.21pm yesterday as he awaited the 1pm statement:
12pm: Another 17 people have died of Covid-19 in French Polynesia, RNZ reports .
As of date, the pandemic has claimed 370 lives in the islands. A local epidemiologist estimates about 14 per cent of people who died had been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. Less than half of the population of French Polynesia has received a dose of vaccine.
French Polynesia opened quarantine-free travel in July last year. Most of the territory is in lockdown for two weeks.
11.51am: Dairy shop owners, workers, and their family members have been granted priority status for getting a Covid-19 vaccine.
Out of the hundreds of locations of interest, a handful involve dairies and service stations.
"It might have taken a week since we first asked for vaccination priority, but dairies now have vaccination priority. We’d like to thank Countdown for interceding on our behalf with the Ministry of Health," says Sunny Kaushal, the chair of the Dairy and Business Owners Group.
“It has been recognised that our people are definitely on the Covid-19 frontline."
11.30am: Speaking on Tagata Pasifika, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says it had been a difficult week for many because of the Delta outbreak, and that it was going to be "hard for a while".
There was criticism earlier this week among Pacific leaders and health providers that the Government wasn't listening to their advice and the needs of their community . They say that has meant vaccination rates among Pasifika are one of the lowest by ethnicity in the country.
Responding to the criticism, Ardern told Tagata Pasifika: “We do have members of the [Pacific] community who have been affected. Some had [given] feedback that our communication could have been better and we need to listen to that because only the community can tell us whether what we’ve been doing is working.”
She says $16 million was allocated for Pasifika-led organisations to help them with rolling out the vaccine. This meant providers were able to get "really creative" about reaching their communities, like doing vaccinations in churches.
The Government needed to continue taking similar steps, Ardern says.
11.12am: National Party leader Judith Collins has completed performance reviews with her MPs. That, plus the resignation of Nick Smith, the return of Harete Hipango, and the ousting of Todd Muller from caucus earlier in the year, has resulted in some tweaks to portfolios .
Changes include Chris Bishop losing his Shadow Leader of the House position to "focus solely" on Covid-19, and Simeon Brown getting a promotion.
10.59am: A police checkpoint has been stood up at Auckland's Hobson Bay. More than a dozen officers have blocked traffic both ways and are checking people's addresses.
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster says police around the country will be increasingly visible this weekend to make sure people are following Alert Level 4 rules.
"The vast majority of New Zealanders have demonstrated an amazing level of compliance, and we need to ensure their hard work and sacrifice is not compromised by a few who deliberately break the rules.
"People can expect that police will intensify our enforcement of the Level 4 restrictions, and more people will be stopped and questioned about their reason for moving away from home," Coster says.
10.45am: The Cancer Society's Daffodil Day appeal was again, for the second year in the row, disrupted by the pandemic on Friday.
But, father and son Luke and Lochie Win didn't want to let the nationwide lockdown get in the way of their fundraising.
Daffodil Day usually comes with pretty blooms and a crucial street appeal for the Cancer Society.
So, the Wins asked for a little help from their friends .
10.20am: With the cancellation of the Winter Pride festival after yesterday's lockdown announcement, Queenstown is expecting to lose "millions and millions of economic impact", RNZ reports .
10.08am: New locations of interest have been released. They include various locations in AUT's city campus and All About Children childcare centre in Manurewa. The full details and times of interest are on the Ministry of Health's website
9.52am: Associate Health Minister Aupito William Sio has appeared on Newshub Nation.
He says people should expect "increased numbers" of Covid-19 cases "as expected".
Sio says he gets the 9am briefing to ministers which shows the number of new cases recorded in the past 24 hours. However, he didn't want to announce the numbers and says people should wait for 1pm.
"I haven't received any reports to indicate [that cases have peaked]," Sio says.
9.46am: The Government is increasing funding for organisations who help with food security by $7 million, Social Development and Employment Minister Carmel Sepuloni says.
The extra funding will help with the distribution of an additional 60,000 food parcels, and 10,000 wellbeing packs, she says.
She says some of the increased demand comes because of the Delta variant.
“The Delta variant is a game changer and has brought new challenges, including the large number of people who’ve become ‘close contacts’ and the need to self-isolate," Sepuloni says.
"We’ve allocated extra money to existing services so people have timely access to immediate and longer-term support packages, in addition to a $2.8 million top up last week."
9.30am: Pasifika social providers tell 1 NEWS they are run off their feet as food demands and the numbers of cases and close contacts grows.
The growing Delta outbreak has forced hundreds of families to self-isolate without access to food, Buttabean Motivation Foodbank's Dave ‘Buttabean’ Letele says.
9.20am: In Paralympics news, swimmer Tupou Neiufi has described her gold medal win in Tokyo Friday night as "unreal" and "overwhelming".
Claiming the top spot in the women's 100m backstroke S8 final was "unreal" and "overwhelming".
The 20-year-old took out the top spot in the women's 100m backstroke S8 final, finishing in a time of 1:16.84.
Neiufi told 1 NEWS she was feeling a "20 out of 10" after the win.
8.50am: Australia has extended its travel pause for New Zealand.
"Considering the increasing case numbers and the Covid-19 Delta variant of concern, the Australian Government will continue the pause of green zone flights from New Zealand until 11:59 pm (AEST) on 31 August 2021. Until this time, all flights originating in New Zealand will be classified as Red Zone flights," Australia’s Department of Health says.
A review of the decision will take place on August 31.
All travellers on flights from New Zealand up until 11.59 pm (AEST) on August 31, at this point, will need to go into 14 days of supervised hotel quarantine when they arrive in Australia.
8.34am: In Fiji , two children are among 11 people who have died from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours.
Fiji has recorded 205 new cases of the virus in the past day, their Government announced on Facebook .
"The death of a child is always terrible and sadly Covid-19 does not discriminate," Health Secretary Dr James Fong says.
"Whilst we know children are at significantly lower risk of suffering severe Covid, unfortunately as we continue to see the virus spread in our community, we will see children being infected and some tragically dying from the virus."
He urged people to get vaccinated.
8.17am: As we learn more about Covid-19 and how it spreads, should social distancing guidelines be reviewed?
University of Auckland aerosol chemist Dr Joel Rindelaub thinks so .
“These are where a lot of these aerosol transmission events can happen because these tiny little particles can travel far greater than just two metres,” he told 1 NEWS.
However, there's concern from Hospitality NZ about what that could mean for businesses.
Social distancing guidelines at the moment state people should stay at least two metres apart with people they don’t know. In “controlled environments” under Alert Level 2, such as in restaurants and gyms, that drops to one metre.
8.05am: Some good news: no new locations of interest have been added in the Ministry of Health's latest update . Locations and times of interest has also fallen from 504 to 480, with entries for August 9 and 10 removed as more than 14 days have passed since then.
8am: Community health group Te Whānau O Waipareira Trust say it's frustrated they aren't getting the sign-off from Ministry of Health officials over saliva testing.
That’s despite them running a pilot programme alongside an accredited saliva testing company Rako Science.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says saliva testing is being rolled out for frontline border workers. However, documents released to 1 NEWS last month show that the Ministry of Health is pushing back against saliva testing, claiming that isn’t accurate enough to do the job.
7.40am: Wellington's first drive-thru vaccination centre is opening from 9am at Sky Stadium.
It's open for bookings from Saturday until Tuesday, August 31 between 9am to 5pm each day.
7.30am: Looking ahead to Tuesday, what could Alert Level 3 look like?
The Government is set to give more detail on Monday. But, as a general rule:
There are expected to be some changes to alert levels in general, to combat the more infectious Delta variant.
7.15am: Among recently-reported Covid-19 cases includes a fully vaccinated person who works at a retirement village in Warkworth. These are known as breakthrough cases.
This is called a breakthrough infection and it's posing a challenge in some countries with high immunisation rates.
1 NEWS' Natalia Sutherland spoke to two Kiwi scientists who specialise in immunology and asked: Why can vaccinated people still get Covid-19?
Meanwhile, Stuff's Hannah Martin reports that the Government is facing questions over how it prioritised vaccinations, given the latest outbreak is affecting younger people who have only recently or aren't yet eligible for the jab.
6.50am: In some non-Covid-19 related news, and for something to occupy your Saturday in lockdown, why not catch up with Paralympic action on TVNZ Duke and TVNZ OnDemand ?
Wheelchair rugby and athletics are some of the offerings today from 2.30pm , NZT.
It follow's Friday's incredible performance from swimmer Tupou Neiufi, who won New Zealand's first gold at the games for 100m backstroke S8 final.
6.30am: A bit of a recap of Friday's developments: There were 70 new community cases of Covid-19 in the community, the Ministry of Health confirmed. All new cases are in Auckland.
Cabinet met to consider alert level settings. All of New Zealand south of the Auckland boundary will move to Alert Level 3 on Tuesday at 11.59pm, while Auckland and Northland will remain in Alert Level 4.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern warned that it was likely that Auckland would remain in lockdown for a further two weeks. However, a final timeline would be confirmed on Monday. She said Northland may not be facing the same length of time in Alert Level 4 as Auckland.
A second sample collected from Christchurch's wastewater systems on Friday has returned another positive result for Covid-19. The Ministry of Health believes they know the source of the positive results in Christchurch, but are remaining cautious.
It was also revealed a fully vaccinated person who contracted Covid-19 had worked in the dementia ward in CHT Amberlea, Warkworth.
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