ISSUE
Friday, August 22, 2025
Volume 16 . Issue 73
There are 21 new community cases of Covid-19 in the country today.
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield says all the new cases are all in Auckland.
Dr Bloomfield says there is one additional case which is yet to be determined whether it is a border or community case.
He says the outbreak now totals 841 cases, and of those 147 have recovered.
The total number of unlinked cases has fallen from 33 yesterday to 24 today, thanks to the efforts of public health units, he says.
Analysis of yesterday's 20 cases shows 17 were contacts of known cases and 16 were household contacts already isolating. Just four were infectious in the community leading to eight exposure events.
The contact tracing database now has 37,971 contacts, a drop from yesterday after work to reconcile duplicates.
About 91 percent of contacts identified have had a test.
Some 7255 swabs were processed in labs yesterday, with about 5800 of those in metropolitan Auckland.
"The most important message from me today is if you have symptoms, please get tested," Bloomfield says.
Saliva testing is being accelerated, he says, with a contract with a further provider being finalised and it is hoped to be available for workers who might need weekly testing because they are travelling across the Auckland boundary.
More than 830 border workers have now signed up for saliva testing, Bloomfield says, and it will become available to more people over time.
There were more than 66,000 vaccinations delivered yesterday.
"Over 60 percent of eligible New Zealanders have had their first dose and nearly a third are fully vaccinated," Bloomfield says.
He says a mum asked the government to share a positive story about her son. He has a health condition which makes him very anxious but the nurse made him feel very safe.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern reiterated this morning that "elimination is absolutely the right thing for us right now while we're vaccinating".
She would not say how many people needed to be vaccinated before stricter lockdowns are phased out. About 60 percent of the population has had its first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Except for the Auckland region, the country will move down alert levels, and this time alert level 2 comes with tougher rules.
Auckland stays in level 4 until 11.59pm next Tuesday 14 September; rest of New Zealand drops alert levels from level 3 to level 2 from 11.59pm tonight.
There are 21 new community cases of Covid-19 in the country today.
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield says all the new cases are all in Auckland.
Dr Bloomfield says there is one additional case which is yet to be determined whether it is a border or community case.
He says the outbreak...
There are 21 new community cases of Covid-19 in the country today.
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield says all the new cases are all in Auckland.
Dr Bloomfield says there is one additional case which is yet to be determined whether it is a border or community case.
He says the outbreak now totals 841 cases, and of those 147 have recovered.
The total number of unlinked cases has fallen from 33 yesterday to 24 today, thanks to the efforts of public health units, he says.
Analysis of yesterday's 20 cases shows 17 were contacts of known cases and 16 were household contacts already isolating. Just four were infectious in the community leading to eight exposure events.
The contact tracing database now has 37,971 contacts, a drop from yesterday after work to reconcile duplicates.
About 91 percent of contacts identified have had a test.
Some 7255 swabs were processed in labs yesterday, with about 5800 of those in metropolitan Auckland.
"The most important message from me today is if you have symptoms, please get tested," Bloomfield says.
Saliva testing is being accelerated, he says, with a contract with a further provider being finalised and it is hoped to be available for workers who might need weekly testing because they are travelling across the Auckland boundary.
More than 830 border workers have now signed up for saliva testing, Bloomfield says, and it will become available to more people over time.
There were more than 66,000 vaccinations delivered yesterday.
"Over 60 percent of eligible New Zealanders have had their first dose and nearly a third are fully vaccinated," Bloomfield says.
He says a mum asked the government to share a positive story about her son. He has a health condition which makes him very anxious but the nurse made him feel very safe.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern reiterated this morning that "elimination is absolutely the right thing for us right now while we're vaccinating".
She would not say how many people needed to be vaccinated before stricter lockdowns are phased out. About 60 percent of the population has had its first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Except for the Auckland region, the country will move down alert levels, and this time alert level 2 comes with tougher rules.
Auckland stays in level 4 until 11.59pm next Tuesday 14 September; rest of New Zealand drops alert levels from level 3 to level 2 from 11.59pm tonight.
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