There are 94 new community cases of COVID-19 to report today; 87 in Auckland and seven in Waikato. As of 10am, 41 of these cases are linked – 26 of which are household contacts – and 53 remain unlinked, with investigations continuing to help determine their connection to the outbreak.

Auckland update
Public health staff are continuing to urge anyone in Auckland to, please, get a test if they have symptoms of COVID-19, regardless of which suburb they live in.

There are increased cases across the region, so everyone needs to remain vigilant.

There are 19 community testing centres available for testing across Auckland today. A list of sites, and their opening hours, can be found on the Healthpoint website.

Mobile surveillance testing of residential facilities is also continuing, including emergency housing, transitional housing, boarding houses, motels and community housing providers. So far, this testing has involved around 50 sites.

Waikato update
There are seven new cases to report today in the Waikato region – initial interviews show all are linked to known cases.

Investigations are continuing to determine the links of two cases reported last week and two cases reported on Sunday (17 October).

Waikato DHB is continuing to carry out regionwide testing, to rule out any undetected community spread of COVID-19, with around 3,370 swabs taken across the region yesterday.

Testing locations in and around Waikato are available on the Healthpoint website and the Waikato DHB website. Pop up testing sites are also operating in Hamilton, Whatawhata (west of Hamilton) and Kihikihi (near Te Awamutu).

Meanwhile, vaccination rates in Waikato remained steady yesterday with 2,939 people receiving a dose – of these, 891 were first doses, and a further 2,048 were second doses.

A total of 529,803 vaccines have been administered across the region to date.

Northland update
We are continuing to encourage anyone in Northland who is symptomatic to get a test.

Yesterday there were 953 tests taken across the region. All tests processed to date have returned negative.

Today there are nine testing centres open across Northland, including the Three Furlongs Bar and Grill in Kaiwaka – on the boundary between Northland and Auckland.

Testing locations across the region are available on the Healthpoint website and the Northland DHB website.

Northland is at Alert Level 3. The region will move to Alert Level 2 at 11:59pm tonight (Tuesday 19 October).