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Rotorua Daily Post

Covid 19 Delta outbreak: 16 new community cases as Aucklanders embrace level 3 weekend

6 minutes to read
There were 16 new cases of Delta in the Auckland community, 3 of which have not been linked to previous confirmed cases. Video / NZ Herald

There were 16 new cases of Delta in the Auckland community, 3 of which have not been linked to previous confirmed cases. Video / NZ Herald

NZ Herald

There are 16 new cases of Delta in the Auckland community, the Ministry of Health has confirmed.

Three of the new cases have not yet been linked to previous confirmed cases.

Two of yesterday's cases had exposure events.

There are 13 people in hospital, with four in ICU or HDU. One patient is at North Shore Hospital, seven in Auckland City Hospital and five in Middlemore.

Authorities announced the latest information on the outbreak in a press release, as Aucklanders enjoy their first weekend at level 3 after more than a month in lockdown.

Of the subclusters involved in the Delta outbreak, 10 are epidemiologically linked - of these, two are active, six are contained and two are dormant.

"There are three historical cases being added to the tally today," the ministry said.

"Included in the tally is today's historical community case - a previously reported border case now reclassified - and today's border case.

"Today's border case is a border worker who caught Covid-19 overseas. This case is no longer infectious."

All cases in one of the largest subclusters – the Birkdale Social Network – have now recovered.

There are 14 epidemiologically unlinked subclusters. Of these, three are active, four are contained and seven are dormant.

There are no new unexpected detections in ESR's latest wastewater testing.

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Testing continues across the Auckland region today; with a particular focus on Clover Park, Māngere, Favona, Ōtara, Manurewa and Mount Wellington/Sylvia Park, the ministry said.

There is a new pop-up community testing centre open today at the Te Hana cafe carpark.

From tomorrow, the Pukekohe pop-up community testing centre will move from the Pukekohe A&P Showgrounds to the Pukekohe Netball Centre. Planning is under way for a pop-up testing centre to open in Tuakau tomorrow.

The pop-up community testing centre at the Manukau Sports Bowl, which enables convenient access to testing for people in the Clover Park area, is open this weekend from 8.30am – 4pm and will remain in place until Friday.

There were 50,600 vaccines administered yesterday, made up of 18,981 first doses and 31,619 second doses. This means almost 5 million doses have been delivered in New Zealand (4,968,935), comprising 3,211,763 first doses and 1,757,172 second doses.

New case at Waitakere Hospital

The Ministry of Health also provided further detail of a case involving a patient who visited Waitakere Hospital - as first reported by the Herald.

A patient who presented to Waitakere Hospital's ED yesterday with Covid-19 symptoms is now in an Auckland quarantine facility, the Health Ministry said.

This person was taken straight to a separate, dedicated area at the hospital for patients with Covid symptoms – patients in this area are kept separate from each other.

The patient returned a positive test and was moved to a negative pressure room before being transported to a quarantine facility following strict Infection, Prevention and Control protocols.

Interviews are continuing with public health staff to determine this person's link to a current cluster.

A small number of patients had also been taken into the same area. These patients will be monitored and tested, however, there was no direct contact with the Covid-19 positive patient.

Fewer than 10 patients are affected, the ministry said. Some of these patients have now been discharged and are being followed up by Auckland public health staff.

A small number of staff had contact with the patient, all were wearing full PPE and are fully vaccinated.

Public health officials have assessed the risk to the public to be low.

The ministry said: "Please get tested if you are a contact, have visited a location of interest at the specific dates and times, are connected to a suburb of interest or have any symptoms of Covid-19 – even those with very mild symptoms need to get tested and isolate at home while waiting for test results.

"People travelling to attend a medical appointment or to access health services, including to get a vaccination, do not need to get tested to cross the Auckland alert level boundary.

"This applies to people travelling both ways - from alert level 2 into alert level 3 as well as the other way, from alert level 3 to alert level 2, but they need to travel directly to their appointment and then return to their place of residence."

Yesterday's numbers

Yesterday there were just nine fresh cases in the community; 13 people were in hospital and three were in ICU with the total cases in the outbreak reaching 1031 on Friday, with 902 now recovered.

Earlier today, it was revealed a person had tested positive for Covid-19 after presenting at the Waitakere Hospital Emergency Department on Friday.

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Yesterday, the ministry confirmed Kainga Ora Apartments Parnell, a BP Connect and more supermarkets in south and east Auckland had been added as locations of interest today.

A person infected with Covid-19 was at the Kainga Ora Apartments in Cracroft St last weekend on September 18, from 8am until the following Monday 8pm.

People who were present at the location are asked to self-monitor for symptoms for 14 days, and if they do develop, to get a test and stay home.

Earlier updates include a person with Covid-19 who was out shopping at Countdown Māngere East on Wednesday, the first day of alert level 3.

The affected person was at the supermarket for 45 minutes on the first day of Auckland dropping down to alert level 3 - between 9am and 9.45am.

Countdown Mt Eden is also a location of interest, after a positive case visited on Sunday between noon and 1pm.

In a 10am update on Saturday, the ministry said there were no new locations of interest to reveal.

New locations added on Friday:

• Kainga Ora Apartments Parnell: 9 Cracroft Street, Parnell
• Countdown Botany Downs: Cnr Te Irirangi and Ti Rakau Drives, Botany Downs
• Countdown Mangere Mall: Bader Drive, Mangere
• BP Connect Weymouth Manurewa: 199 Weymouth Road, Manurewa
• Countdown Mt Eden: Corner Valley Road and Dominion Road, Mt Eden
• Pak'nSave Māngere: Corner of Bader Drive and Orly Ave, Māngere
• Countdown Māngere East: 359 Massey Rd, Māngere
• Tai Ping Asian Supermarket: 16 Bishop Dunn Place, Flat Bush
• Fresh Vege Mart: 6 Yates Rd, Māngere East
• Unichem Māngere Pharmacy: 12 Waddon Place, Māngere
• Pak'nSave Ormiston: 1 Bellingham Rd, Flat Bush