There are 13 new Covid-19 cases in the community on Thursday, all of which are in Auckland, the Ministry of Health and Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield has confirmed.
Bloomfield gave the updated figures at the 1pm briefing alongside Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in Wellington after the Ministry of Health released the information digitally.
The total number of cases in the Delta outbreak is now 996, of which 460 have now recovered.
Bloomfield said included in the new cases was a person who presented to Middlemore with no Covid symptoms but was swabbed as part of the wider testing now taking place at the hospital.
Another case identified is a truck driver who travelled across the Auckland border as part of their work to make deliveries, Bloomfield said.
The Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield gave the latest update on the outbreak.
"This driver is being interviewed by Auckland Regional Public Health to determine if there are any locations of interests," Bloomfield said.
"If there are, they will be put up on the Ministry of Health website. There may well be exposure events but they may not become locations of interest if there are a small number of people and those people are known.
"The driver was tested after isolating as a household contact of another case.
"This case emphasises the importance of testing those who cross over the Auckland boundary."
Bloomfield later said the truck driver travelled to Hamilton, Cambridge and Tauranga however it was not yet known if that was during the case's infectious period.
"That will come out in the discussion that is happening with the driver."
Bloomfield added there are five cases from the border, three of which are new cases in MIQ and two historical cases.
It means New Zealand's total confirmed cases to date since the pandemic began is 3643.
The total number of unlinked cases currently sits at 30, of which 10 are from the last fortnight.
Analysis of yesterday's 15 cases announced confirmed seven were linked to existing cases while five were infectious in the community. 10 of today's cases have already been epidemiologically linked while the other three are yet to be linked.
There are currently 19 cases in hospital, all in the Auckland region; six at Auckland Hospital, 10 in Middlemore and three cases at North Shore.
Bloomfield said four of the cases are in ICU and all four are ventilated.
Auckland's outbreak currently has eight identified sub-clusters with the two largest being the Mangere church group [381 cases] and the Birkdale social network [77].
Of the 963 active contacts being managed by the ministry, approximately 95 per cent have been contacted and tested. The rest are being chased up by officials.
Another 62,782 vaccinations were administered yesterday, taking New Zealand's total to date to 4,507,944 of which 2,978,105 are first doses.
SHARE ME