There have been 18 new community cases of Covid-19 reported in New Zealand today, with all but two epidemiologically linked to previous cases, the Health Ministry says.
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There was no media conference today. In a statement, the Health Ministry said there are now a total of 1165 community cases associated with the latest outbreak of the Delta variant of the virus.
It said 934 of Auckland's 1148 cases had now recovered.
The ministry said there were five cases in the past fortnight that were still not linked to previous cases.
The 16 linked cases reported today are all in isolation at home or in MIQ.
There was also one new and two historical cases detected at the border.
There are 12 people in hospital, including four in intensive care.
Microbiologist Siouxsie Wiles said there is some good news from today's figures.
She said half of yesterday's 16 cases had exposure events, meaning the cases were at venues while infectious.
But most of today's cases were people who were already in isolation.
Associate Professor Wiles said it shows that Covid-19 precautions are still needed.
Yesterday the ministry announced that there were 16 new cases with 13 epidemiologically linked to previous cases. There was also one historical community case not associated with the current outbreak and another historical case found at the border yesterday.
There have been a total of 3827 cases since the pandemic began.
The ministry said more than 5 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine had now been given out in New Zealand.
"We want to reiterate our thanks to frontline staff administering the vaccines, especially during the current community outbreak. Your hard work is helping to keep New Zealanders safe."
Testing in Auckland continues to focus on Clover Park, Māngere, Favona, Ōtara, Manurewa, and Mount Wellington/Sylvia Park. The ministry said 980 tests taken from these suburbs were processed yesterday.
"There continues to be good uptake of testing for people connected to Clover Park with over 2,140 tests processed since Sunday 19 September. We are continuing to encourage Clover Park residents, and those in the surrounding areas, to get a test regardless of whether they have symptoms of Covid-19," the ministry said.
"We have seen good testing numbers for Mt Wellington residents, with over 1,300 tests processed in three days. The nearest community testing centres for people living in the Mt Wellington/Sylvia Park area are the pop-up CTC at the Auckland Netball Centre in St Johns and the Mt Smart Stadium Community Testing Centre in Penrose."
A new pop-up testing centre opens today at the Tuakau Rugby League Club, with the Pukekohe pop-up community testing centre at the Pukekohe Netball Centre.
