MINISTRY OF HEALTH UPDATE
September 17, 2021
Traces of Covid-19 have been detected in wastewater in Auckland’s eastern suburbs – the catchment includes Pakuranga, Shelley Park and Bucklands Beach.
| Cases | |
| Number of new community cases | 11 |
| Number of new cases identified at the border | Five |
| Location of new cases | Auckland |
| Location of community cases (total) | Auckland 990 (535 of whom have recovered); Wellington 17 (15 of whom have recovered) |
| Number of community cases (total) | 1007 (in current community outbreak) |
| Cases infectious in the community * | Nine (60%) of yesterday’s 15 cases have exposure events |
| Cases in isolation throughout the period they were infectious * | Six (40%) of yesterday’s 15 cases |
| Cases epidemiologically linked | Nine of today’s cases |
| Cases to be epidemiologically linked | Two of today’s cases |
| Cases epidemiologically linked (total) | 973 (in current cluster) (13 in past 14 days unlinked) |
| Number of sub-clusters | Nine epidemiologically linked sub-clusters. The three largest sub-clusters are the Māngere church group: 384; and Birkdale social network cluster: 79; secondary community transmission associated with the Māngere church group 164. And 10 epidemiologically unlinked sub-clusters. |
| Cases in hospital | 14 (total): North Shore (2); Middlemore (8); Auckland (4) |
| Cases in ICU or HDU | Three |
| Confirmed cases (total) | 3658 since pandemic began |
| Historical cases, since 1 Jan 2021 (total) | 149 out of 1840 since 1 Jan 2021 |
| Contacts | |
| Number of active contacts being managed (total): | 1064 |
| Percentage who have received an outbound call from contact tracers (to confirm testing and isolation requirements) | 94% |
| Percentage with at least one test result | 88% |
| Locations of interest | |
| Locations of interest (total) | 135 (as at 10am 17 September) |
| Tests | |
| Number of tests (total) | 3,206,325 |
| Number of tests total (last 24 hours) | 15,419 |
| Tests in Auckland (last 24 hours) | 7400 |
| Tests rolling average (last 7 days) | 13,177 |
| Testing centres in Auckland | 23 |
| Wastewater** | |
| Wastewater detections | Auckland eastern suburbs (catchment includes Pakuranga, Shelley Park, Bucklands Beach) |
| Covid-19 vaccine update | |
| Vaccines administered to date (total) | 4,569,255; 1st doses: 3,015,345; 2nd doses: 1,553,910 |
| Vaccines administered yesterday (total) | 60,506; 1st doses: 36,666; 2nd doses: 23,840 |
| Māori | 1st doses: 282,828; 2nd doses: 135,945 |
| Pacific Peoples | 1st doses: 182,388; 2nd doses: 93,880 |
| NZ Covid-19 tracer | |
| Registered users (total) | 3,224,773 |
| Poster scans (total) | 363,829,166 |
| Manual diary entries (total) | 16,437,191 |
| Poster scans in 24 hours to midday yesterday | 2,478,712 |
*Yesterday we reported 13 community cases, however in today’s reporting of yesterday’s cases who were infectious in the community, we are reporting 15 – this is due to two different data systems and a small lag in data reportage.
**Recovered cases can continue shedding viral matter for weeks after recovering.
With more than 700 recovered cases linked to this outbreak, we will see detections of Covid-19 in wider wastewater that are likely linked to recovered cases. Nonetheless, public health officials will continue to investigate positive detections and take urgent repeat samples where appropriate.
Historical cases identified at the border
| Arrival date | From | Via | Positive test day/reason | Managed isolation/quarantine location |
| *4 September | Russia | UAE | Day 11 / routine | Auckland |
| *4 September | Russia | UAE | Day 11 / routine | Auckland |
| 12 September | Philippines | Australia | Day 3 / routine | Auckland |
| 15 September | Germany | UAE | Day 0 / routine | Hamilton |
| 17 September | UK | Singapore | Day 1 / routine | Christchurch |
*These cases are in a travel bubble together
