September 18, 2021
There are 20 new community cases today. Nineteen of these are household or known contacts and only one of these remains unlinked.
Interviews are underway with that person to determine how they are linked to the current outbreak. As noted yesterday, we are expecting some fluctuations in case numbers at this point in the outbreak.
A total of 12,427 tests were taken yesterday, including more than 7000 swabs taken in the Auckland region, and more than 1500 essential worker tests. We have also had over 1000 saliva tests since Monday with the majority in the last 48 hours. Over 400 employers will be instigating saliva testing for almost 4,500 employees across New Zealand.
Testing at high levels in Auckland remains an essential part of our outbreak response to detect every community case and stop onwards transmission.
We continue to urge anyone in Auckland with cold or flu symptoms, no matter how mild, to come forward to be tested.
In addition, both people with and without symptoms who live in a suburb of interest are asked to get a test. These are: Mt Eden, Massey, Māngere, Favona, Papatoetoe, Ōtara, Manurewa.
| Cases | |
| Number of new community cases | 20 |
| Number of new cases identified at the border | Four |
| Location of new cases | Auckland |
| Location of community cases (total) | Auckland 1010 (625 of whom have recovered); Wellington 17 (16 of whom have recovered) |
| Number of community cases (total) | 1027 (in current community outbreak) |
| Cases infectious in the community | Seven (64%) of yesterday’s 11 cases have exposure events |
| Cases in isolation throughout the period they were infectious | Four (36%) of yesterday’s 11 cases |
| Cases epidemiologically linked | 19 of today’s cases |
| Cases to be epidemiologically linked | 1 of today’s cases |
| Cases epidemiologically linked (total) | 995 (in current cluster) (7 in past 14 days unlinked) |
| Number of sub-clusters | Nine epidemiologically linked sub-clusters. Of these, one is active, seven are contained and one is dormant. The three largest sub-clusters are the Māngere church group: 384; and Birkdale social network cluster: 80; secondary community transmission associated with the Māngere church group 166.There are 10 epidemiologically unlinked sub-clusters. |
| Cases in hospital | 10 (total): North Shore (1); Middlemore (6); Auckland (3) |
| Cases in ICU or HDU | Three |
| Confirmed cases (total) | 3682 since pandemic began |
| Historical cases, since 1 Jan 2021 (total) | 151 out of 1,864 since 1 Jan 2021 |
| Contacts | |
| Number of active contacts being managed (total): | 1140 |
| Percentage who have received an outbound call from contact tracers (to confirm testing and isolation requirements) | 94% |
| Percentage with at least one test result | 82% |
| Locations of interest | |
| Locations of interest (total) | 142 (as at 10am 18 September) |
| Tests | |
| Number of tests (total) | 3,218,752 |
| Number of tests total (last 24 hours) | 12,427 |
| Tests in Auckland (last 24 hours) | 7411 |
| Tests rolling average (last 7 days) | 12,775 |
| Testing centres in Auckland | 21 |
| Wastewater* | |
| Wastewater detections | There are no unexpected detections. |
| COVID-19 vaccine update | |
| Vaccines administered to date (total) | 4,630,806; 1st doses: 3,049,241; 2nd doses: 1,581,565 |
| Vaccines administered yesterday (total) | 60,480; 1st doses: 33,048; 2nd doses: 27,432 |
| Māori | 1st doses: 286,766; 2nd doses: 138,377 |
| Pacific Peoples | 1st doses: 184,868; 2nd doses: 95,701 |
| NZ COVID-19 tracer | |
| Registered users (total) | 3,228,277 |
| Poster scans (total) | 366,380,713 |
| Manual diary entries (total) | 16,505,506 |
| Poster scans in 24 hours to midday yesterday | 2,524,913 |
* There was no detection of Covid-19 in a wastewater sample collected on September 14 from Snells/Agies. This follows a detection from this site on September 7, it is likely that this earlier detection was from known cases in the area. Recovered cases can continue shedding viral matter for weeks after recovering.
Sub-cluster reporting
A number of clusters are no longer cause for concern as we are not seeing new positive cases within them. Each cluster that remains of interest, could be considered as a big bubble with the majority being close-knit groups of households There has been good communication and engagement with these groups of households.
Additional reporting will now include the number of sub-clusters that are active, contained, dormant or closed, based on the time since the last case associated with the sub-cluster was reported, and factors like whether the case was a household member. This helps us determine the risk associated with each sub-cluster.
• Active sub-clusters: Cases reported within the previous 14 days and are not household or other known contacts of previous cases
• Contained sub-clusters: Cases reported within the previous 14 days and are household or other known contacts of previous cases
• Dormant sub-clusters: No cases reported in the previous 14 days
• Closed sub-clusters: No cases reported in previous 28 days
Confirmed cases identified at the border
| Arrival date | From | Via | Positive test day/reason | Managed isolation/quarantine location |
| 16 September | UAE | Malaysia | Day 0 / routine | Auckland |
| 16 September | India | Serbia Montenegro / UAE | Day 0 / routine | Auckland |
Historical cases identified at the border
| Arrival date | From | Via | Positive test day/reason | Managed isolation/quarantine location |
| 14 September | Russia | Singapore | Day 0 / routine | Christchurch |
| 11 September | Sri Lanka | Full travel history to be confirmed | Day 0 / routine | Auckland |
