Latest Ministry of Health statistics show that seven children under 9 and 11 teenagers have Covid-19. It accounts for 24 per cent of people in the cluster.
The 70-plus age group, considered by health authorities to be the most vulnerable in our community, accounts for just five per cent of cases to date.
The single worst affected age band is people in their 50s, making up 20 per cent of the cluster's 75 cases.
Pacifika peoples now make up 72 per cent of those infected with Covid-19 in this latest outbreak.
Otago University department of public health's Dr Amanda Kvalsvig said the percentage of child cases in the latest Auckland cluster was higher than usually reported in Covid-19 outbreaks.
"We would expect that finding to a certain extent, because children are less likely to have Covid-19 symptoms than older adults, so they often don't get tested. But in this outbreak, all close contacts of cases are being tested and that approach may be picking up child cases that we otherwise wouldn't know about," she said.
During the first outbreak in March, around 10 per cent of cases were aged under 20 and mainly aged between 10-19 years.
But it was too early to tell if this was a true difference, saying "this point may become clearer as the outbreak develops".
She said the age spread might simply reflect the life circumstances of the earlier cases and the type of close contacts they had.
"A big question is whether the high proportion of children is a unique feature of this cluster, or whether it reflects how Covid-19 might spread in future outbreaks," she said.
At least three primary schools including Glamorgan School in Torbay, Southern Cross Campus and Taeaofou I Puaseisei Preschool in Mangere East have been put on high alert and classmates and teachers are in isolation after a child at each centre tested positive for covid. They include a 6-year-old at the Southern Cross junior school and a child under 5 who attended the preschool.
Two of Auckland's largest secondary schools have also been impacted by the city's outbreak with a pupil each from Mt Albert Grammar and Avondale College testing positive. More than 100 close contacts at MAGS are now in self-isolation.
They make up a portion of the nearly 1700 households across Auckland and Tokoroa, in South Waikato, that have had to undertake a form of quarantine living inside their homes for two weeks and undergo testing to prevent the contagious disease spreading.
A teenage girl in Tokoroa aged between 15-19 is one of two people in her home who fell ill after a visiting infected Americold worker stayed the night at their house.
There are also three tertiary students in their teens and early 20s who have tested positive since the outbreak started. One each attended Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT), Auckland University and Auckland University of Technology.
None of the preschoolers or students are believed to have become ill after picking up the virus from the educational institution they attended. And, many of them weren't symptomatic when they were in class, reducing the risk of exposure to teachers and classmates.
A Ministry of Health diagram tracking the cluster's infection reveals seven people are infected in one Auckland household - the single worst-affected home - after someone contracted the sickness through Americold where there are 10 cases to date.
Three more households and three members of a church - a total of 10 people - are shown to have became sick after coming into contact with someone living in that house.
The coolstore workforce has the highest number of Covid victims, while Finance Now has five sick employees.
Around half of the 18 households linked to the outbreak have just one sick person. Five households have two people, two have three people with Covid and two have four. A church linked to the household of seven sick people has three ill parishioners.
Auckland's Pasifika community has been hit especially hard in the outbreak, with nearly three-quarters of those falling ill identifying as Pacific peoples. The remaining victims are an equal mix of Maori and other ethnicities.
The high proportion of Pasifika cases is concerning those in public health, especially when it comes to future outbreaks across the country.
"Our previous research shows that Pasifika experience a heavy and unequal burden of infectious diseases, and the risk is particularly unequal for children, as we seen in rates of serious conditions like rheumatic fever and meningitis. Also, Maori and Pasifika have experience devastating losses in previous pandemics," said Kvalsvig.
"The high proportion of Pasifika cases may simply reflect the specific families caught up in this outbreak, but I'm concerned that this finding may be a warning of what could happen if Covid-19 becomes widespread in New Zealand."
Kvalsvig said eliminating the virus and keeping it eliminated might be the only option we had to keep these communities safe.
Auckland University Health and Medical Sciences Associate Dean Pacific Dr Collin Tukuitonga said it was very likely because the index family were Pasifika all the contacts would be largely from the same ethnic group.
However, it wasn't helped that challenging living situations such as crowded housing combined with other underlying health conditions were contributing to so many in the south Auckland community falling ill.
He said 15 of 17 Covid-infected cases of those under 20 in the current community outbreak were Pasifika.
"It's a stunning figure because 10 per cent are Maori and zero are Pakeha under 20 years," he said.
Tukuitonga was stumped by the high proportion of those under 20 being struck down by the virus, but attributed it in part to more children in Pacific households being exposed.'
Kvalsvig said while it was good news that educational settings didn't appear to be spreading infections, there were still questions around how likely youngsters were to pass the infection on to older adults, even when they didn't feel sick.
Infection control in schools such as wearing masks might be a vital measure to protect aged members in the community, she said.
There are now 125 people from the community who have been moved into the Jet Park Hotel quarantine facility. That number includes 61 people who have tested positive for Covid-19 and their household contacts.
Today five people are in hospital across Auckland after contracting Covid in the past week. One person is in Auckland City Hospital and four are in Middlemore Hospital.
The most high-profile Covid victim is former Cook Islands Prime Minister Dr Joe Williams.
The 82-year-old who was working in his Mt Wellington practice just days before he fell ill and admitted for treatment.
The largest cluster this year remains the Bluff Wedding where 98 people became sick and two people, including the groom's father, died.
