Thursday 9 September

Today’s 13 cases bring the total number of cases in the outbreak to 868.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Health Director General Dr Ashley Bloomfield gave today’s 1pm update. 

From today’s new cases, more than half have established links to the current outbreak. In total, there are 30 unlinked cases in the cluster, and investigations are ongoing. 

31 people are in hospital, all in Auckland. Of these, 5 are in the ICU or the high dependency unit, with 3 on ventilators. 

264 cases in the cluster have also recovered. 

There was also an update on the patient at Auckland’s Middlemore hospital who tested positive with Covid at the weekend. 124 patients and 29 staff were identified as contacts, and all have returned negative results for their Day 3 tests, Bloomfield said. All remain in isolation. 

Contacts

Of the 38,126 contacts identified in the outbreak, 87 percent have had a test. Public health units are following up those who haven’t had one or have outstanding results. 

Testing and scanning

Testing numbers have increased over the last few days. Yesterday, there were 17,684 tests across the motu, with 8,472 tests in Auckland. 

Bloomfield said this was a pleasing increase and is fundamental to us gaining confidence that the outbreak is controlled. 

Surveillance testing to ensure there is no undetected Covid in the community is also underway. 

Today, two testing sites at two supermarkets in the Auckland region have been set up. A third one is due to be rolled out tomorrow. The surveillance tests are just for workers at those sites at the moment, Bloomfield said. 

There was also a sharp increase in scanning through the Covid tracer app yesterday as the rest of the country outside of Auckland entered their first day at Delta level 2. 1.6 million scans were recorded yesterday and the country is being reminded to scan using the Covid app and QR codes.

Vaccine update

Today, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that an agreement with Spain was finalised which secured 250,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine. It is due to arrive in New Zealand tomorrow morning.

The extra doses ensure New Zealand is able to continue its vaccine rollout at a significant rate, she says. 
So far, 64 percent of those aged over 12 have had at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine. Anyone over 12 is eligible for a vaccine. 

Ardern stressed the importance of high vaccination rates across the motu. 

“If everyone who can be vaccinated is vaccinated, you are potentially saving the life of someone who can’t be. 

“In fact, 121 of the New Zealanders who have tested positive in the last three weeks are under 9 years old.

“These are children, who at this stage cannot be vaccinated, so they need us to be, all of us,” she said.