Covid 19 coronavirus Delta outbreak: No Covid-19 in Bay wastewater, Coromandel awaits results

Director General of Public Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield, right. Photo / File

Wastewater testing for Covid-19 has come back clear for areas of the Bay of Plenty including from testing sites in Rotorua, Tauranga and Mount Maunganui.

Wastewater testing from sampling on Monday returned positive results from several Auckland sites, all with known cases in their catchments, Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said in the 1pm briefing.

There will be further results available late today for some other samples taken around the Auckland region.

The wait for results in Coromandal, however, continues.

"Additional results [are] expected tomorrow including results of samples taken in several locations in Coromandel and Thames," Bloomfield said.

"Other sampling undertaken on Monday and Tuesday in Mount Maunganui, Tauranga, Hamilton, Rotorua, Gisborne, Taupo, New Plymouth, Napier, Hutt Valley, Wellington, Nelson, Christchurch, Queenstown and Invercargill have all come back negative."

It is an anxious wait for the region, which has several locations of interest after a visit from an Auckland tradesman who later tested positive for Covid-19.

Pop-up testing sites remain open in various parts of the Coromandel Peninsula.

The Auckland sites with positive results were Rosedale on the North Shore, and the Western and Eastern interceptors, and at St George in the Waitakere catchment.

All sites previously returned negative results. There are known cases in all those areas, Bloomfield said.

As of 1pm, there are 21 Delta Covid cases, up from 10 yesterday. All are in Auckland, including two in hospital.

Nineteen are in the Auckland quarantine facility.