Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay says there are 21 new positive cases of COVID-19 in the community, which brings the total number of confirmed cases associated with the current Auckland community outbreak to 51.
She said all cases are being transferred to managed isolation facilities using strict infection prevention and control procedures.
“Of the 21 new cases, 18 are in Auckland and three are in Wellington, one of which we reported yesterday.
Investigations into the source of these cases continue.
21 cases of the 51 are part of the Auckland cluster with the remaining investigations still underway to confirm the specific linkage, but initial assessment shows that in the vast majority of cases, there is a link.
“Public health staff are rapidly interviewing cases to establish new cases and where they were infected and to determine further details of their movements and we will continue to release that information as it becomes available.”
In addition to the community cases, there are three new cases to report in recent returnees in our managed isolation facilities and whole-genome sequencing esr continues.
They’ve completed sequencing for 29 of those cases including the three Wellington cases reported yesterday and they are all genomically linked to the Auckland cluster.
“On contact tracing, our public health staff across New Zealand are continuing to contact trace with a focus on higher risk locations that is a team effort involving the ministry’s national investigation and tracing centre and all of the country’s public health units and they’re working tirelessly to investigate the cases.”
10,000 contacts expected by end of today
Over 5000 contacts had been identified so far in this cluster and a further 5000 close contacts are expected by end of today. Jacinda Ardern said “it is a very large number.”
“I’m not concerned by that broad reach because we are in level 4, so by and large people should already be at home and with delta it’s better to be safe than sorry. Previously with locations of interest, we were really just interested in whether or not you physically had some contact with someone in a delta environment. We are being more cautious, which is why you are seeing more context and you remember that from our Wellington case it is deliberately larger, it’s all about adapting the way that we’re working with delta, so I think if anyone’s looking at those contacts and thinking gosh that seems a lot more than we used to have, that’s because we have changed the way we’re doing things because of Delta.”
Police warnings
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said 17 people have been charged with breaking with Covid-19 lockdown restrictions. Ardern said there have been 53 formal warnings issued by police, and 70 infringements issued nationwide including 61 to people who failed to remain at home and five for persons who fail to wear a face covering. You do need to wear face coverings when you enter into an essential service like a supermarket.”
