There are 125 new Covid-19 cases in the community today, including two new cases in Christchurch, the Ministry of Health says.
File image. Photo: 123RF
There was no Covid-19 media conference today. In a statement, the ministry said the two Christchurch cases were expected and related community cases, both from a single household linked to the cases identified earlier this week.
The Ministry said 13 close contacts of the four Canterbury cases were isolating and would undergo further testing. Covid-19 was detected in a Christchurch wastewater sample taken on Wednesday.
There was also one new case in Northland and four in Waikato, with the remaining 118 in Auckland. Three of the Waikato cases are still to be linked, but the Northland case was not unexpected, as they are a household member of a case and were already isolating.
Fifty-one of the new cases are still to be linked. There have been 289 unlinked cases in the past 14 days.
There were also three new cases and one historical case identified at the border.
There are 39 people in hospital with the coronavirus, including four in intensive care.
One of the new Auckland cases is a resident at Edmonton Meadows retirement village in Henderson.
"Public health staff are confident the risk of infection is low but, as a precaution, testing is being arranged for all staff and residents. Both staff and residents at the village have very high vaccination rates.
"Investigations are underway to determine the source of the infection and identify close contacts. At this stage, no staff members are required to stand down."
The Ministry said the rise in case numbers was a reminder of the infectiousness of Covid-19.
"With over 30,000 tests processed nationwide yesterday, these results aren't unexpected."
There were 44,779 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine given yesterday, including 12,780 first doses and 31,999 second doses.
One of the four new cases reported in the Waikato today has been linked to existing cases. Three of the new cases were in the Te Awamutu/Kihikihi area and one in Ōtorohanga.
In Auckland, people in the suburbs of Redvale, Rosedale, New Lynn, Wiri, Drury, Henderson and Manurewa are being urged to get tested.
There were 89 new community cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand yesterday, after the revelation of the first two cases in Christchurch.
The number of community cases linked to the current outbreak has risen to more than 3000, with 3046 cases in this outbreak - more than half of the 5764 in total since the pandemic began.
