On Saturday, shoppers in Napier's CBD were briefly distracted by about 200 anti-mandate protesters on a day when 106 Covid-19 cases were announced for Hawke's Bay.
The march, preceded by the loud revving of a motorcycle, swung out of Dalton St into Dickens St and toward Marine Parade about 12.35pm, where protesters gathered on reserve land near the Sound Shell.
The gathered throng were told that if nothing came of Saturday's protests around the country, then more action would happen on March 1.
Meanwhile, 97.2 per cent of Hawke's Bay's eligible population have had their first vaccine dose, with 95.2 per cent having their second.
70.7 per cent have had their booster shot.
The Ministry of Health issued a statement saying that MoH's daily reported cases may differ slightly from those reported at a DHB or local public health unit level.
"This is because of different reporting cut off times and the assignment of cases between regions, for example when a case is tested outside their usual region of residence. Total numbers will always be the formal daily case tally as reported to the WHO."
Locally, the Hawke's Bay DHB will look into a claim that an 18-year-old Havelock North girl was declined a test at the Splash Planet testing site last week, and tested positive for Covid-19 shortly after.
The girl says she was told to go home and treat her flu-like symptoms, and was not tested.
She made a doctor's appointment, undertook a test and went home to isolate. But on Friday she sourced a RAT (rapid antigen test) through her father, and tested positive.
Meanwhile, Sunday's tally of 14,941 community cases shattered New Zealand's previous case count record for the sixth day in a row.
There are now 305 people in hospital, up 42 from Saturday. The number of people in ICU remains at five.
Nationally there were 13,606 new community cases of Covid-19 on Saturday.
Over the course of the past week, the number of newly detected Covid-19 community cases each day has more than quintupled - from just over 2500 cases reported last Sunday to 13,606 yesterday.
The huge spike in cases has singled New Zealand out as one of the most infectious places in the world at the moment, according to a new analysis.
Since last Sunday, hospitalisations have also climbed but not nearly at the same rate. There were 100 Covid-19 patients in hospital one week ago and 263 on Saturday.
There are no Covid patients in hospital in Hawke's Bay.
