A vaccinator administering a Covid jab at a drive through clinic outside the Semenoff Stadium in Whangārei.
Photo / Michael Cunningham
A vaccinator administering a Covid jab at a drive through clinic outside the Semenoff Stadium in Whangārei.
Photo / Michael Cunningham
At least 25 Northlanders who attended an awards event in downtown Auckland are self-isolating after the Ministry of Health declared the function venue to be a location of interest.
They work for Bayleys Real Estate in Whangārei and were part of 1000 guests from throughout New Zealand that were at the company's national conference and awards event at Spark Arena on Friday August 13.
A similar number attended a Mitre 10 awards night at the same location the previous night but the hardware giant would not confirm if any employees from its stores in Whangārei, Kerikeri and Kaitaia were at the venue.
A Mitre 10 spokeswoman sent a short statement, saying attendees were notified that they had been at a location of interest and were advised of the actions they and their households needed to take regarding self-isolation and testing.
"The country was at Level 1 at the time of the event and appropriate protocols were in place, including QR codes and contract tracing capability."
The infected person was part of the bar staff.
General manager for Bayleys in Northland, Tony Grindle, said 25 or so staff from the region attended the event in Auckland on August 13 and all have tested negative for Covid.
"We were told to self-isolate as soon as we were advised it was a location of interest. All tests came back negative. The 14-day isolation will be up this Friday," he said.
Despite the lockdown and the closure of Bayleys offices in Northland, Grindle said auctions would continue virtually as the demand for properties continued unabated.
"The good news is business is going well. We've sold properties whereby purchasers have not seen properties, others have seen them, they've seen videos and have chosen to buy, contracts have gone backwards and forwards so things are happening."
"We've got an auction in Kerikeri on Wednesday and there will be spirited bidding on the phone. It's a matter of communicating with people...enquiries from Auckland continue unabated," Grindle said.
More than two dozen staff of Bayleys Real Estate in Northland who were at a location of interest in Auckland are self isolating.
Photo / Michael Cunningham
All close contacts from both events were told they must immediately self-isolate and contact Healthline about when they need to be tested for Covid-19.
Their household contacts were advised that they must also self-isolate.
Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield yesterday announced 41 new cases, taking the number of Covid cases to 148 throughout New Zealand.
A child under the age of one is the youngest case in the Delta outbreak so far, while a number of other positive cases are teenagers.
Northland does not to date have a positive Covid case from the latest outbreak.
Northland District Health Board vaccinators did 565 Covid tests and administered 2431 vaccinations on Monday—, the highest number of vaccinations given on any day in the region.
As of yesterday morning, 102,786 Covid doses had been administered in Northland. The Whangārei vaccination centre moves to Ballance Agri-Nutrients on 223 Kioreroa Rd from today.The centre will be open from 10am to 5.30pm today, 8am to 7.30pm tomorrow, and 9am to 4pm on Saturday.
Bookings are essential and can be made via bookmyvaccine.covid19.health.nz. There will be no drive-ins or walk-ins.
Vehicles queuing up at a drive-through vaccination clinic run by the Northland District Health Board outside Semenoff Stadium. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Around two-thirds of people infected in the Delta outbreak are younger than 30 and half come from the Pasifika community.
The Ministry of Health said about half of the highest risk of contacts, mostly in Auckland, were yet to have their test results returned.
There were 369 close-plus contacts, 51 per cent of which had test results, and 11 per cent were positive, she said.
There were 14,967 close contacts, 56 per cent had returned test results, and 0.2 per cent were positive.
And there were 405 casual-plus contacts, about half of whom were tested, with no positive results so far.
The ministry said cases were increasingly coming from locations of interest or from close contacts, rather than from people who were infected pre-lockdown.
Māori health providers, GPs and pharmacies across Northland are also providing vaccinations.
