There are 65 new community Covid-19 cases today.

All are in Auckland.

There are 34 people in hospital. North Shore (3); Middlemore (18); Auckland (12); Palmerston North Hospital (1)

As at 11am, 34 of these cases are linked, 10 are household contacts, and 31 remain unlinked with investigations continuing to help determine their connection to the current outbreak.

Waikato update

Waikato DHB is continuing to carry out regionwide testing, to help rule out any undetected community spread of COVID-19.

There are five community testing centres available across Waikato today, including a pop-up testing centre in Te Awamutu following a second positive wastewater detection in the area.

Public health officials have yet to identify anyone who returned to the area from managed isolation and quarantine and could be shedding the virus in the area.

For this reason, anyone in the Te Awamutu area who has symptoms of COVID-19, or have family or household members who are symptomatic, or anyone who travels in and out of the area regularly for work, are urged to get tested as soon as possible.

Anyone who has been at a location of interest at the relevant time and is now in Te Awamutu should also get tested.

Location of testing sites in and around Te Awamutu and Waikato are available on the Healthpoint website and the Waikato DHB website.

There are no new cases to report in Waikato today, with the total number of cases in the region associated with this outbreak remaining at 37.

Of these cases, two (who are within the same household) are yet to be linked to another case, with investigations into the source of their infection ongoing.

Results of whole genome sequencing from samples from these two cases reported on Wednesday (13 October) show they are linked to other local cases and the Auckland outbreak. Hamilton residents are encouraged to keep checking the Ministry’s website for any locations of interest.

Meanwhile, vaccination rates in Waikato remained high yesterday with 6,502 people receiving a dose – of these, 1,939 were first doses, and a further 4,563 were second doses. There were also around 3,500 swabs taken across the region yesterday.

Alert levels for Northland, Auckland, and the Waikato will be reviewed again on Monday.

At this stage, the next press conference is scheduled for Monday, 18 October.