Ministry of Health update:
| Cases | |
| Number of new community cases | 65 |
| Number of new cases identified at the border | One |
| Location of new community cases | Auckland (65) |
| Location of community cases (total) | Auckland 1,801 (1,170 of whom have recovered); Waikato 37 (2 of whom have recovered); Wellington 17 (all of whom have recovered) |
| Number of community cases (total) | 1,855 (in current community outbreak) |
| Cases infectious in the community | 30 of yesterday’s 71 cases have exposure events |
| Cases in isolation throughout the period they were infectious | 41 of yesterday’s 71 cases |
| Cases epidemiologically linked | 34 of today’s 65 cases |
| Cases to be epidemiologically linked | 31 of today’s 65 cases. |
| Cases epidemiologically linked (total) | 1,712 (in the current cluster) (107 unlinked from the past 14 days) |
| Sub-clusters | Given the number of unlinked cases each day, subclusters are not currently being used in the active management of the outbreak in Auckland. Epidemiological links are being explored during case interviews and whole genome sequencing is being undertaken on all cases, but the focus is on isolating cases and identifying, testing and isolating close contacts. |
| Cases in hospital | 34 (total): North Shore (3); Middlemore (18); Auckland (12); Palmerston North Hospital (1) |
| Cases in ICU or HDU | Six |
| Confirmed cases (total) | 4,538 since pandemic began |
| Historical cases, since 1 Jan 2021 (total) | 169 out of 2,723 since 1 Jan 2021 |
| Contacts | |
| Number of active contacts being managed (total): | 1973 |
| Percentage who have received an outbound call from contact tracers (to confirm testing and isolation requirements) | 85% |
| Percentage with at least one test result | 81% |
| Locations of interest | |
| Locations of interest (total) | 428 (as at 10am 15 October) |
| Tests | |
| Number of tests (total) | 3,701,367 |
| Number of tests total (last 24 hours) | 27,766 |
| Tests processed in Auckland (last 24 hours) | 12,888 |
| Tests rolling average (last 7 days) | 22,612 |
| Testing centres in Auckland | 20 |
| Wastewater | |
| Wastewater detections | A second wastewater sample taken from Te Awamutu on Wednesday has tested positive for COVID-19. COVID-19 was also detected in a composite sample collected from Wellsford on Tuesday. |
| COVID-19 vaccine update | |
| Vaccines administered to date (total) | 6,113,819; 1st doses: 3,512,376 (83%); 2nd doses: 2,601,443 (62%) |
| Vaccines administered yesterday (total) | 68,003; 1st doses: 15,121; 2nd doses: 52,882 |
| Māori | 1st doses: 361,310; 2nd doses: 236,057 |
| Pacific Peoples | 1st doses: 223,947; 2nd doses: 156,831 |
| Vaccines administered to Auckland residents to date (total) | 2,214,969: 1st doses: 1,256,071 (88%); 2nd doses: 958,898 (67%) |
| Vaccines administered to Auckland residents yesterday (total) | 20,970: 1st doses: 3,571, 2nd doses: 17,399 |
| NZ COVID Tracer | |
| Registered users (total) | 3,299,053 |
| Poster scans (total) | 431,206,310 |
| Manual diary entries (total) | 18,276,853 |
| Poster scans in 24 hours to midday yesterday | 2,436,412 |
Commentary from the Ministry of Health:
Waikato update
Waikato DHB is continuing to carry out regionwide testing, to help rule out any undetected community spread of COVID-19.
There are five community testing centres available across Waikato today, including a pop-up testing centre in Te Awamutu following a second positive wastewater detection in the area.
Public health officials have yet to identify anyone who returned to the area from managed isolation and quarantine and could be shedding the virus in the area.
For this reason, anyone in the Te Awamutu area who has symptoms of COVID-19, or have family or household members who are symptomatic, or anyone who travels in and out of the area regularly for work, are urged to get tested as soon as possible.
Anyone who has been at a location of interest at the relevant time and is now in Te Awamutu should also get tested.
Location of testing sites in and around Te Awamutu and Waikato are available on the Healthpoint website and the Waikato DHB website.
There are no new cases to report in Waikato today, with the total number of cases in the region associated with this outbreak remaining at 37. Of these cases, two (who are within the same household) are yet to be linked to another case, with investigations into the source of their infection ongoing.
Results of whole genome sequencing from samples from these two cases reported on Wednesday (13 October) show they are linked to other local cases and the Auckland outbreak. Hamilton residents are encouraged to keep checking the Ministry’s website for any locations of interest.
Meanwhile, vaccination rates in Waikato remained high yesterday with 6,502 people receiving a dose – of these, 1,939 were first doses, and a further 4,563 were second doses. There were also around 3,500 swabs taken across the region yesterday.
Next update
The Ministry’s updates over the weekend will be via media releases, unless there are any significant developments.
Alert levels for Northland, Auckland, and the Waikato will be reviewed again on Monday.
At this stage, the next press conference is scheduled for Monday, 18 October.
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