Covid-19 made a return to the South Island on Saturday as 104 community cases of Covid-19 were reported including two under 12's in Northland. Video / NZ Herald
There are 104 new Covid community cases today, including more in Northland and the first case in the South Island in 12 months.
Today's cases include 91 in Auckland, eight in the Waikato, four in Northland and one in the Nelson Marlborough region, the Ministry of Health said.
Of the new cases, 43 are linked - including 33 being household contacts - and 61 remain unlinked. Investigations are continuing into the unlinked cases.
There have now been 2172 cases - out of the total of 2492 since the latest outbreak began - that have been epidemiologically linked. However, 274 cases from the last 14 days are yet to be linked back to known cases.
There are now 55 people in hospital, including eight in the North Shore, 19 in Middlemore, 27 in Auckland and one in Waikato. Five people are in intensive care. The average age of those in hospital is 43.
Out of yesterday's 129 cases, 53 were infectious while in the community. The other 76 were in isolation while infectious.
Health teams are actively managing 2403 people considered contacts of Covid cases. They have contacted 82 per cent of these contacts to advise them they need to isolate and get a Covid test. Out of these, 75 per cent have had at least one test result back.
Vaccine targets
Yesterday, 44,750 vaccine doses were administered across the country, including 11,368 first doses and 33,382 second doses.
Across Auckland, 18,709 vaccine doses were issued yesterday - made up of 3975 first doses and 14,374 second doses.
It means that 90 per cent - 1,286,279 people - of the eligible Auckland population has now received its first dose and 75 per cent have received the second dose (that's 1,078,399 of those 1,286,279 people).
And while that 90 per cent first-dose number across the region is comforting, the first-dose levels within the region's three DHB areas vary - for the Auckland City DHB it's 93 per cent, for Waitemata it's 90 per cent, and for Counties Manukau it's 87 per cent.
The Government has said it needs all three Auckland DHBs to get to a 90 per cent double-vaccination rate, before the region can move to the new traffic light system and relative freedoms.
Auckland city DHB is sitting on a double vaccination rate of 80 per cent, Waitemata is on 75 per cent, and Counties Manukau is on 72 per cent.
Auckland needs another 44,233 shots administered, Waitemata 79,546 and Counties Manukau 87,359 to get to the 90 per cent double-shot target.
Across New Zealand, 3,626,019 people or 86 per cent of the eligible population have had a first dose, while 2,935,712 or 70 per cent have had a second dose.
Among Māori 389,884 or 68 per cent have had their first dose while 272,446 or 48 per cent have had their second dose.
In Pacific people, the number of first doses has hit 235,267 or 82 per cent, while 179,554 second doses or 63 per cent have been given out.
Northland DHB today confirmed four new cases of Covid-19 in the region. All are related to each other and the two newest cases are children under 12 years of age.
The four cases include the two cases that were confirmed in the region yesterday, just days after the Northland emerged from level 3 lockdown.
Those two cases are contacts of a recently diagnosed case in Auckland and are now isolating near Kaikohe. They are not linked to the Covid-positive women who travelled to the region at the start of the month.
With a third potential case in Whangārei Heads, health officials are urging Northlanders to get tested.
Locations of interest for Northland have been updated on the Ministry of Health website this morning and further locations are expected to be added later today.
Parua Bay Tavern closed yesterday after one staff member self-isolated due to having contact with a confirmed Covid-19 case outside of work. All staff who have been self-isolating have tested negative. Parua Bay Tavern is not a place of interest and will reopen tomorrow.
In response to the active cases in the region, the Hospital Visitor Policy has also been updated for Whangārei, Kaitaia, Dargaville and Bay of Islands Hospitals.
One support person can accompany patients who are receiving end of life care, children, or women who are in labour. Screening is in place at all hospital entrances.
Northland DHB incident controller Sarah Hoyle said that having active cases in the region is an important reminder for everyone who is eligible to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
"It is also important that anyone who has been at a location of interest, or who has cold and flu symptoms, gets a test," she said.
Northland DHB said support has been put in place for the whanau of the four new cases. They have "worked cooperatively" with the Public Health team to identify locations of interest, the DHB said.
So far, initial case interviews have identified a small number of close contacts, who have been contacted and are currently isolating with tests arranged.
Interviews are also being undertaken to determine any locations of interest in, or en route to, Blenheim. People living in the Blenheim township are asked to monitor the Ministry of Health's locations of interest page, which is regularly updated.
The ministry said the current public health assessment was that the risk appeared low given the individual's likely late stage of infection.
Blenheim residents with symptoms – no matter how mild – are urged to get tested, even if they are vaccinated.
Public health officials have concluded their investigations into a Waikato case who travelled to Hawke's Bay and returned a positive Covid-19 result following their arrival back in the Waikato.
One location of interest, Kmart Napier, has been identified and anyone there between 3:53pm – 5:13pm on Friday October 15 is asked to monitor their symptoms for 14 days.
If any develop, they should get tested and stay at home until a negative test result is received and they have been symptom-free for 24 hours, the ministry said.
No further locations of interest in Hawke's Bay have been identified but locals are asked to please keep checking the Ministry of Health's website for the next few days.
Waikato
The eight new cases in Waikato today include seven in Te Awamutu and one in Hamilton.
The Te Awamutu cases have all been linked to an exposure event in a house. Public Health teams are planning to interview the Hamilton case today.
At this time, there are five cases in Waikato that are deemed unlinked – but one is a new case who Public Health are speaking to today.
Testing locations in and around Waikato are available on the Healthpoint website and the Waikato DHB website, with testing available throughout Labour Weekend. Yesterday around 2400 tests were processed in the Waikato.
Vaccination rates in Waikato also remained steady yesterday with 3706 people receiving a dose – including 1201 first doses, and a further 2505 second doses.
Traffic light system
PM Jacinda Ardern yesterday also revealed New Zealand will move into a new way of managing Covid-19 when District Health Boards have 90 per cent of their eligible populations vaccinated.
The traffic light system will use vaccine certificates to allow complying businesses to continue to operate at all times - and proposes to end nationwide lockdowns, despite the Government retaining the right to use smaller, localised lockdowns.
Some argue freedoms for lockdowned Aucklanders can't come soon enough, while some medical specialists expect intensive care units in the nation's hospitals to be overwhelmed as case numbers go up.
Today's cases follow on from two daily record highs on Thursday and Friday.
Prior to Thursday, case numbers had been hopping around earlier in the week between lower and higher numbers, but experts are now tipping numbers to continue to grow.
In Auckland, the virus was now widely dispersed, health officials said.
So health teams are focusing testing on areas with higher positive test rates and where the risk of unidentified cases is higher, the ministry said.
One suburb of interest with a high positivity rate of more than 7 per cent is Redvale, on the North Shore.
However, at this stage, no recorded cases in Redvale have been linked to last weekend's well-reported party.
Otara vaccination drive-through in Auckland. Photo / Alex Burton
Director general of health Ashley Bloomfield earlier this week said case numbers are doubling every 10 to 12 days. He said the key point was how many of those people who caught Covid-19 were vaccinated.
Only 1.7 per cent of people hospitalised in the Delta outbreak have been vaccinated.
The city could move out of its level 3 setting when all of its three DHBs hit a 90 per cent double dose target, forecast to occur by early December on current trends.
However, the hard boundary surrounding the city and preventing Aucklanders from travelling to other parts of the country would remain as long as any of the nation's other DHBs were below 90 per cent double dosed.
