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Record daily high of 94 new community cases of Covid-19 reported with 87 in Auckland; 7 in Waikato; 38 people in hospital

Record daily high of 94 new community cases of Covid-19 reported with 87 in Auckland; 7 in Waikato; 38 people in hospital

The Ministry of Health is reporting a record daily high of 94 community Covid-19 cases on Tuesday. The previous daily high was 89 on April 2 last year.

Ministry of Health update:

Cases  
Number of new community cases 94
Number of new cases identified at the border Five
Location of new community cases Auckland (87) Waikato (7)
Location of community cases (total) Auckland 2,030 (1,360 of whom have recovered); Waikato 52 (7 of whom have recovered); Wellington 17 (all of whom have recovered)
Number of community cases (total) 2,099 (in current community outbreak)
Cases infectious in the community   34 of yesterday’s 60 cases have exposure events
Cases in isolation throughout the period they were infectious   26 of yesterday’s 60 cases
Cases epidemiologically linked 41 of today’s 94 cases
Cases to be epidemiologically linked 53 of today’s 94 cases
Cases epidemiologically linked (total) 1,891 (in the current cluster) (183 unlinked from the past 14 days)
Cases in hospital 38 (total): North Shore (8); Middlemore (12); Auckland (18)
Cases in ICU or HDU Five
Confirmed cases (total)* 4,794 since pandemic began
Historical cases 171 out of 2,979 since 1 Jan 2021
Contacts  
Number of active contacts being managed (total): 2,039
Percentage who have received an outbound call from contact tracers (to confirm testing and isolation requirements) 82%
Percentage with at least one test result 73%
Locations of interest  
Locations of interest (total) 439 (as at 10am 19 October)
Tests  
Number of tests (total) 3,789,996
Number of tests total (last 24 hours) 16,921
Tests processed in Auckland (last 24 hours) 12,688
Tests rolling average (last 7 days) 24,406
Testing centres in Auckland 19
Wastewater  
Wastewater detections Ongoing detections at most sites across Auckland, as well as new but expected detections in Hamilton and Te Awamutu.
COVID-19 vaccine update  
Vaccines administered to date (total) 6,387,870; 1st doses: 3,582,822 (85%); 2nd doses: 2,805,048 (67%)
Vaccines administered yesterday (total) 42,793; 1st doses: 10,025 2nd doses: 32,768
Māori 1st doses: 379,563 (66%); 2nd doses: 258,018 (45%)
Pacific Peoples 1st doses: 231,295 (81%); 2nd doses: 171,818 (60%)
Vaccines administered to Auckland residents to date (total) 2,308,268: 1st doses: 1,274,317 (89%); 2nd doses: 1,033,951 (72%)
Vaccines administered to Auckland residents yesterday (total) 14,026: 1st doses: 2,960; 2nd doses: 11,066
NZ COVID Tracer  
Registered users (total) 3,307,226
Poster scans (total) 440,181,234
Manual diary entries (total) 18,551,273
Poster scans in 24 hours to midday yesterday 1,993,155



New cases identified at the border

Arrival date From Via Positive test day/reason Managed isolation/quarantine location
14 October United Kingdom United Arab Emirates Day 3/Routine Auckland
14 October United Kingdom United Arab Emirates Day 3/Routine Auckland
14 October United Arab Emirates Direct flight Day 3/Routine Auckland
16 October United Arab Emirates Direct flight Day 0/Routine Auckland
16 October United Arab Emirates Direct flight Day 0/Routine Auckland


*One case reported yesterday has been reclassified as under investigation as a possible historical case and has been removed from the case total.

Commentary from the Ministry of Health:

Auckland update
Public health staff are continuing to urge anyone in Auckland to, please, get a test if they have symptoms of COVID-19, regardless of which suburb they live in.

There are increased cases across the region, so everyone needs to remain vigilant.

There are 19 community testing centres available for testing across Auckland today. A list of sites, and their opening hours, can be found on the Healthpoint website.

Mobile surveillance testing of residential facilities is also continuing, including emergency housing, transitional housing, boarding houses, motels and community housing providers. So far, this testing has involved around 50 sites.

Waikato update
There are seven new cases to report today in the Waikato region – initial interviews show all are linked to known cases.

Investigations are continuing to determine the links of two cases reported last week and two cases reported on Sunday (17 October).

Waikato DHB is continuing to carry out regionwide testing, to rule out any undetected community spread of COVID-19, with around 3,370 swabs taken across the region yesterday.

Testing locations in and around Waikato are available on the Healthpoint website and the Waikato DHB website. Pop up testing sites are also operating in Hamilton, Whatawhata (west of Hamilton) and Kihikihi (near Te Awamutu).

Meanwhile, vaccination rates in Waikato remained steady yesterday with 2,939 people receiving a dose – of these, 891 were first doses, and a further 2,048 were second doses.

A total of 529,803 vaccines have been administered across the region to date.

Northland update
We are continuing to encourage anyone in Northland who is symptomatic to get a test.

Yesterday there were 953 tests taken across the region. All tests processed to date have returned negative.

Today there are nine testing centres open across Northland, including the Three Furlongs Bar and Grill in Kaiwaka – on the boundary between Northland and Auckland.

Testing locations across the region are available on the Healthpoint website and the Northland DHB website.

Northland is at Alert Level 3. The region will move to Alert Level 2 at 11:59pm tonight (Tuesday 19 October).

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