83 new community cases of Covid-19, total now 511

August 29, 2021

There are 83 new cases of Covid-19 in the New Zealand community today; 82 are in Auckland, one is in Wellington who is a close contact of an existing case and was in isolation. This brings the total number of cases in the community outbreak to 511.

The total number of community cases in Auckland is now 496 and in Wellington it is 15.

All of the cases have or will be transferred safely to a quarantine facility, under strict infection prevention and control procedures, including the use of full PPE.

There are 453 cases that have been clearly epidemiologically-linked to another case or sub-cluster, and a further 58 for which links are yet to be fully established.

There are currently seven epidemiologically-linked sub-clusters identified within this outbreak. The two largest clusters are the Birkdale Social Network cluster associated with Case A (68 confirmed cases), and the Mangere church cluster (237 confirmed cases).

Of the current community cases, 34 cases are in hospital – 32 are in a stable condition on a ward and two cases are in a stable condition in ICU. Three cases are in North Shore Hospital, 17 are in Middlemore Hospital, 13 are in Auckland City Hospital, and one is in Wellington Regional Hospital.

There are appropriate isolation and infection prevention and control plans in place at all hospitals where these patients are being managed.

The total number of active cases being managed in New Zealand is currently 551.

There are two new cases in recent returnees in managed isolation facilities.

New cases identified at the border

Since January 1, 2021, there have been 124 historical cases, out of a total of 1290 cases.

Our total number of confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic is 3108.

Amberlea Home and Hospital Care Facility (Algie’s Bay)
All 13 patients in the dementia ward, where the positive case worked, have returned negative results.

Testing
Testing nationwide remains an essential part of our response to this outbreak, in particular providing confidence for understanding the extent of any spread of Covid-19.

Our advice remains the same – wherever you are in the country, if you were at a location of interest, at the specified times, or have cold and flu symptoms, please call Healthline on 0800 358 5453 for advice on testing.

By calling Healthline, people who have been at locations of interest at relevant times are logged into the contact tracing system. This means their swab can be tracked and processed faster by the laboratories.

Yesterday, 23,139 tests were processed across New Zealand.

Testing centres in Auckland had another busy day yesterday with around 9700 swabs taken across Auckland, with around 6300 at community testing centres and around 3400 at general practice and urgent care clinics.

There are 26 community testing centres available for testing across Auckland today, this includes 4 invitation-only testing centres for high-risk groups and to prioritise essential health care workers, 6 regular community testing centres and 16 pop-up testing centres.

We are expecting it to be busy today and tomorrow as many contacts’ day 12 tests become due.

For up-to-date information on all testing locations, please visit the Healthpoint website.

The total number of Covid-19 tests processed by laboratories to date is 2,951,303.

The seven-day rolling average is 37,031.

Whole Genome Sequencing
ESR has now run whole genome sequencing on samples taken from around 343 community cases. Analysis of these samples has determined they are all genomically linked to the current outbreak.

Wastewater
There are no new unexpected detections to report.

Following detection of Covid-19 in samples collected from Christchurch on August 21, 23 and 25, samples were collected from five sites within Christchurch on 26 August. These have now returned negative results and further samples are being collected for analysis today and tomorrow from a further nine sites across Christchurch.

Covid-19 was found in a sample collected from Warkworth on August 27, this follows detections on August 17, 22 and 24. The virus was also detected in samples collected across Auckland, and from Wellington (Moa Point) on August 27.

Samples from 125 locations during this outbreak have been analysed. There are 86 locations in the North Island and 39 locations in South Island. These cover an estimated 3.9 million people, and over 95 per cent of the New Zealand population is connected to reticulated wastewater systems.

Contact tracing
As of 10am today, 32,771 individual contacts have been identified and around 85% have had a test.

Locations of interest
Additional locations of interest continue to be identified.

Please remember to regularly check the Ministry’s website. Locations are being automatically updated on a two-hourly basis between 8am and 8pm. If you have been to a location of interest during the relevant time, you are asked to self-isolate and call Healthline on 0800 358 5453 for advice on testing.

However, anyone who develops symptoms whether or not they have been at a listed location of interest, should ring Healthline for advice on testing.

Remember, by calling Healthline for advice on testing, people who have been at locations of interest at relevant times are logged into the contact tracing system. This means their swab can be tracked and processed faster by the laboratories.

Covid-19 vaccine update
Yesterday 77,965 vaccines were administered. Of these 55,779 were first doses and 22,177 were second doses.

More than 3.28 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to date.

Of these, over 2.1 million are first doses and more than 1.14 million are second doses.

More than 194,133 Māori have received their first vaccination. Of these, more than 104,146 have also had their second vaccinations.

More than 125,495 doses first doses have been administered to Pacific peoples. Of these, more than 70,754 have also received their second doses.

NZ Covid Tracer
NZ Covid Tracer now has 3,101,884 registered users.

Poster scans have reached 332,207,832 and users have created 14,686,052 manual diary entries.

There have been 669,537 scans in the 24 hours to midday yesterday; thanks to all those people who are scanning regularly when they are visiting essential services.