Around 70 per cent - or 80,294 Northlanders - have received their booster shot. Counties Manukau DHB has the lowest recorded percentage of booster uptake with 66 per cent compared to Capital and Coast DHB in Wellington who are sitting at 80 per cent.
Currently, 87 per cent of the 50,488 Māori people eligible for vaccination had a single dose, and 82 per cent double dosed.
Northland's Pacific community is only 17 people away from having the entire 2934 people eligible partially vaccinated. Around 96 per cent have received two shots of the vaccine.
Vaccinations are available today until 3pm at district health board sites in Kaitāia (Matthews Ave); Kerikeri (Sammaree Pl); Dargaville (Normanby St), and Whangārei (Northland Events Centre).
A list of Saturday's vaccination times as well as Māori provider vaccination details are available on the Northland DHB website.
Bookings are compulsory for people seeking the AstraZeneca vaccination.
Testing is available throughout the region. However, the district health board has said people wanting a Covid-19 test at a community testing centre will be screened upon arrival to determine which test is most appropriate.
They advised people may be given a rapid antigen test (RAT) instead.
Northland RATs collection sites are:
• Kaitāia COVID-19 Vaccination & Testing Centre
The Old Warehouse Building, 11 Matthews Avenue, Kaitaia
• Kerikeri RAT Collection
570 Kerikeri Road, Kerikeri
• Whangārei COVID-19 Community Testing Centre
20 Winger Crescent, Kamo
• Dargaville Hospital COVID-19 Community Testing Centre
77 Awakino Road, Dargaville
Testing centres open today until 3pm are Kaitāia (Matthews Ave); Dargaville Hospital; Whangārei (Winger Cr & Pohe Island); and Kerikeri (570 Kerikeri Rd).
Three per cent of NZ's population are currently active cases
There are 22,535 new Covid-19 cases today and a further five deaths have been reported.
There are now 67 people who have died with Covid since the outbreak started in 2020.
Three per cent of New Zealand's population are currently active cases of which there are 152,358.
There are 562 people in hospital and 11 in intensive care with 382 of those in Auckland. Seven people are in intensive care in Auckland.
The case numbers are down on yesterday's 23,183 but hospitalisations are up with 503 yesterday.
The latest deaths are:
• A patient with Covid died at Tauranga Hospital yesterday. The person was in hospital for an unrelated condition but had tested positive.
• A patient died at Waikato Hospital yesterday. They died of an unrelated medical condition and had tested positive for Covid.
• A person in Dunedin who died of an unrelated medical condition yesterday while receiving palliative care had tested positive for Covid.
• Two patients died in Middlemore Hospital, on March 1 and February 27. Both people had unrelated medical conditions and had tested positive for Covid.
Of the new community cases, 18,779 were from Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) and 3748 were from PCR tests.
The regional breakdown of cases is: 515 cases in Northland, 13,252 in Auckland, 1674 in Waikato, 1,248 in Bay of Plenty, 464 in Lakes, 325 in Hawke's Bay, 364 in MidCentral, 79 in Whanganui, 257 in Taranaki, 155 in Tairāwhiti, 69 in Wairarapa, 1356 in Capital and Coast, 577 in Hutt Valley, 304 in Nelson Marlborough,1163 in Canterbury, 63 in South Canterbury, 632 in Southern, 16 in West Coast and 14 that is unknown.
There were eight cases at the border, with one confirmed and seven deemed probable.
