Monday 30 August, 4pm

Auckland will remain at alert level 4 for two more weeks. Northland will move to level 3 on Thursday 2nd of September if wastewater testing comes back clear. 

Cabinet has confirmed everywhere south of the Auckland border will move to level 3 three on Tuesday at 11:59pm. This will remain the case for at least one week. 

“Level three does not mean freedom. It means caution,” says Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. “It means staying in your bubble.”

Ardern says it may be possible to keep Auckland in level 4 while other parts of the country are in level 2. Only a level 2 and 3 split has occurred before, but Dr Ashely Bloomfield says there could be a new addition if needed. 

First death in New Zealand linked to Covid-19 vaccine

The first death linked to the Pfizer vaccine has been recorded in New Zealand - it's understood a woman died from myocarditis, a rare side effect of the vaccine. 

While there are rare side effects of the vaccine that can cause death, Covid-19 itself is much more deadly, especially without protection of a vaccine. 

In New Zealand, 26 people have died from Covid-19, and 4.5 million people have died from Covid-19 globally. 

To put the rarity of deaths from the vaccine in perspective, the US Centre of Disease Control and Prevention reports more than 363 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in the United States from December 14, 2020 to August 23, 2021. 

During this time, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) received 6,968 reports of death among people who received a Covid-19 vaccine. That’s 0.0019 percent. 

The mortality rate of Covid-19 in New Zealand is estimated to be 0.8 percent, but in countries like Peru (9.2 percent), China (4.5 percent) and the United Kingdom (2.0 percent) the fatality rate can be much higher, according to Johns Hopkins University. 

Food support

Ardern is encouraging people who need food support due to the extended lockdown in Auckland to contact the Ministry of Social Development for grants. She says $7 million has been directed to food scarcity providers who can provide up to 60,000 for those in need. 

Dr Bloomfield says there was no intention to single out the Pasifika individual who was asked to present their passport as ID at a vaccination centre. You can read more about the issue here.

Monday 30 August, 1pm

Today there are 53 new community cases of Covid-19, all of which are in Auckland.

There are now 562 active community cases in total. 547 are in Auckland and 15 are in Wellington. 

Of the current community cases, 37 cases are in a stable condition in hospital and five cases are in a stable condition in ICU.

There is one new case and one historical case of Covid-19 in managed isolation facilities. One case in MIQ facilities has recovered, this is an addition to the two other recovered cases in Auckland.

Testing

Yesterday, 16,370 tests were processed across New Zealand. Testing in Auckland was particularly busy yesterday with around 15,000 swabs taken across the region. Around 10,500 were at community testing centres and around 4,500 at general practice and urgent care clinics.

Wastewater

A total of twelve wastewater samples were conducted last week. Covid-19 was detected in one sample from Fort Takapuna, on Auckland’s North Shore (sampled on 23 August). The virus was not detected in the other samples tested. 

Locations of interest

As of 8am this morning, there were 444 locations of interest. You can see the full list of locations on the Ministry of Health website here.

Locations are being automatically updated on a two-hourly basis between 8am and 8pm. 

Vaccine update

Yesterday 47,897 vaccines were administered across the country. Of these 36,476 were first doses and 11,421 were second doses. This is a record number for a Sunday.

More than 3.3 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to date. Of these, 2.17 million are first doses and more than 1.16 million are second doses. 

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