MINISTRY OF HEALTH UPDATE
October 19, 2021
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.
| Cases | |
| Number of new community cases | 94 |
| Number of new cases identified at the border | Five |
| Location of new community cases | Auckland (87) Waikato (7) |
| Location of community cases (total) | Auckland 2030 (1360 of whom have recovered); Waikato 52 (7 of whom have recovered); Wellington 17 (all of whom have recovered) |
| Number of community cases (total) | 2099 (in current community outbreak) |
| Cases infectious in the community | 34 of yesterday’s 60 cases have exposure events |
| Cases in isolation throughout the period they were infectious | 26 of yesterday’s 60 cases |
| Cases epidemiologically linked | 41 of today’s 94 cases |
| Cases to be epidemiologically linked | 53 of today’s 94 cases |
| Cases epidemiologically linked (total) | 1891 (in the current cluster) (183 unlinked from the past 14 days) |
| Cases in hospital | 38 (total): North Shore (8); Middlemore (12); Auckland (18) |
| Cases in ICU or HDU | Five |
| Confirmed cases (total)* | 4794 since pandemic began |
| Historical cases | 171 out of 2979 since 1 Jan 2021 |
| Contacts | |
| Number of active contacts being managed (total): | 2039 |
| Percentage who have received an outbound call from contact tracers (to confirm testing and isolation requirements) | 82% |
| Percentage with at least one test result | 73% |
| Locations of interest | |
| Locations of interest (total) | 439 (as at 10am 19 October) |
| Tests | |
| Number of tests (total) | 3,789,996 |
| Number of tests total (last 24 hours) | 16,921 |
| Tests processed in Auckland (last 24 hours) | 12,688 |
| Tests rolling average (last 7 days) | 24,406 |
| Testing centres in Auckland | 19 |
| Wastewater | |
| Wastewater detections | Ongoing detections at most sites across Auckland, as well as new but expected detections in Hamilton and Te Awamutu. |
| Covid-19 vaccine update | |
| Vaccines administered to date (total) | 6,387,870; 1st doses: 3,582,822 (85%); 2nd doses: 2,805,048 (67%) |
| Vaccines administered yesterday (total) | 42,793; 1st doses: 10,025 2nd doses: 32,768 |
| Māori | 1st doses: 379,563 (66%); 2nd doses: 258,018 (45%) |
| Pacific Peoples | 1st doses: 231,295 (81%); 2nd doses: 171,818 (60%) |
| Vaccines administered to Auckland residents to date (total) | 2,308,268: 1st doses: 1,274,317 (89%); 2nd doses: 1,033,951 (72%) |
| Vaccines administered to Auckland residents yesterday (total) | 14,026: 1st doses: 2,960; 2nd doses: 11,066 |
| NZ Covid Tracer | |
| Registered users (total) | 3,307,226 |
| Poster scans (total) | 440,181,234 |
| Manual diary entries (total) | 18,551,273 |
| Poster scans in 24 hours to midday yesterday | 1,993,155 |
New cases identified at the border
| Arrival date | From | Via | Positive test day/reason | Managed isolation/quarantine location |
| 14 October | United Kingdom | United Arab Emirates | Day 3/Routine | Auckland |
| 14 October | United Kingdom | United Arab Emirates | Day 3/Routine | Auckland |
| 14 October | United Arab Emirates | Direct flight | Day 3/Routine | Auckland |
| 16 October | United Arab Emirates | Direct flight | Day 0/Routine | Auckland |
| 16 October | United Arab Emirates | Direct flight | Day 0/Routine | Auckland |
*One case reported yesterday has been reclassified as under investigation as a possible historical case and has been removed from the case total.
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 (October 17).
Waikato DHB is continuing to carry out regionwide testing, to rule out any undetected community spread of Covid-19, with around 3370 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 2939 people receiving a dose – of these, 891 were first doses, and a further 2048 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).
