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Catch up: 149 new Covid-19 cases in the community

Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for November 22. Help support our Covid coverage – join The Spinoff Members today.

  • There were 149 new community cases yesterday, including a new case in Tauranga and another in Rotorua, according to the ministry of health.
  • The ministry has confirmed the Hawke’s Bay case reported by media on Saturday, saying it was counted in previously announced numbers as the test was taken in Auckland prior to the person leaving.
  • An initial weak positive result in Christchurch reported yesterday is being further investigated, including a repeat swab being taken, and the results are expected to be reported in today’s update. The person recently travelled to the North Island, and is linked to another case in the lower North Island.
liveupdatesgeneric

Catch up: 149 new Covid-19 cases in the community

Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for November 22. Help support our Covid coverage – join The Spinoff Members today.

  • There were 149 new community cases yesterday, including a new case in Tauranga and another in Rotorua, according to the ministry of health.
  • The ministry has confirmed the Hawke’s Bay case reported by media on Saturday, saying it was counted in previously announced numbers as the test was taken in Auckland prior to the person leaving.
  • An initial weak positive result in Christchurch reported yesterday is being further investigated, including a repeat swab being taken, and the results are expected to be reported in today’s update. The person recently travelled to the North Island, and is linked to another case in the lower North Island.
Nov 21 2021

The latest data on the spread of delta

vaccination rates by suburb

There are 149 new cases in the community today. Here’s the latest data.

Eighty-three people are in hospital, including five in ICU.

There are 839 unlinked cases from the past fortnight.

There were 21,501 vaccine doses administered yesterday, made up of 6,002 first doses and 15,499 second doses.

149 new Covid-19 cases in the community

Image: Getty / Tina Tiller

There are 149 new community cases today, including a new case in Tauranga and another in Rotorua, the Ministry of Health has announced.

The ministry has confirmed the Hawke’s Bay case reported by media yesterday, saying it was counted in previously announced numbers as the test was taken in Auckland prior to the person leaving.

The person was relocating from Auckland and advised to isolate in Hawke’s Bay after the positive result was returned. Local public health staff report the case is currently isolating safely and remains well.

Contacts tested so far have returned negative results and further results are pending. Any locations of interest will be added to the ministry’s webpage when they are confirmed, but to date any exposures identified have been assessed as limited and any contacts able to be contacted directly, said the ministry.

Anyone in Hawke’s Bay with Covid-19-related symptoms – no matter how mild – is urged to get tested, even if they are vaccinated. Covid-19 testing and vaccination site locations are available on Hawke’s Bay DHB’s website.

Weak positive result in Christchurch

An initial weak positive result in Christchurch reported today is being further investigated, including a repeat swab being taken, and the results are expected to be reported in tomorrow’s update. The person recently travelled to the North Island, and is linked to another case in the lower North Island.

“Every new case is an urgent reminder to get tested if you’re feeling unwell. Testing at high numbers will help to minimise and contain the spread of Covid-19 in Christchurch,” said the ministry. Testing locations throughout Canterbury can be found on the Canterbury DHB website.

New cases in Tauranga and Rotorua

There is one new case being reported in the Bay of Plenty today, a contact of a known cluster in Tauranga.

“It is critical that anyone with any cold or flu symptoms gets tested as quickly as possible – maintaining a high rate of testing in the Bay of Plenty will help to contain the spread of Covid-19,” said the ministry. Testing locations can be found on the Healthpoint website.

Case interviews continue to identify new locations of interest, which are being added regularly to the webpage. Everyone who lives in or has travelled to the region is asked to monitor locations of interest daily and follow any advice given.

There is one new case in Rotorua, a close contact of a known case. Anyone in the Lakes district with symptoms is encouraged to get tested – even if the symptoms are mild. Testing is available today in Rotorua and Taupō – check the Healthpoint website for details.

Six new cases in Waikato, two in Whangārei

There are six new cases being reported in Waikato today, three from Hamilton, one from Huntly, and two from Te Kauwhata, “with further investigation pending to confirm this location”.

Four of the cases are known contacts and public health staff will investigate the remaining two cases today.

In Waikato, public health staff are supporting 136 cases to isolate at home.

There are two new cases being reported in Whangārei, Northland, today, which were reported after the 9am cut-off and will be added to the case tally tomorrow. Both people are close contacts of existing cases and were already in isolation.

No new cases in Wellington, one location of interest

There are no further case announcements for the Wellington region today. There is currently only one location of interest identified – Countdown Cable Car Lane in Wellington city, which is on the ministry’s website. As investigations continue, more locations of interest may be confirmed and people are encouraged to monitor the ministry’s locations of interest webpage, which is updated regularly.

A small number of close contacts, including the case’s co-workers, have all returned negative results.

Anyone in the region with Covid-19-related symptoms – no matter how mild – is urged to get tested, even if they are vaccinated.

Vaccine update

There were 21,501 vaccine doses administered yesterday, made up of 6,002 first doses and 15,499 second doses. To date, 91% of eligible people in New Zealand have had their first dose and 83% are fully vaccinated.

Twelve DHBs have now reached the 90% first dose vaccination milestone, the most recent being South Canterbury.

My Vaccine Pass

As of mid-morning today, over one million people had successfully downloaded their My Vaccine Pass.

The system is operating smoothly, and capacity has been increased, so the ministry is encouraging people to go to MyCovidRecord.health.nz to order their My Vaccine Pass to be ready for summer.

Auckland update

Today, there are 138 new cases to report in Auckland.

There are 15 community centres available for testing across Auckland today. The testing centres at Northcote, Balmoral, Pukekohe and Wiri continue to operate extended hours to increase access to testing.

In the last seven days there have been 113,599 community tests for Covid-19 received at labs across Auckland. ”This is an incredible effort – especially for all front-line testing staff who are out in all weathers and the laboratory teams who are working tirelessly to process these swabs,” said the ministry.

People in Auckland with symptoms, no matter how mild, are urged to get tested – even if they are vaccinated – and remain isolated until they return a negative result.

Public health staff are now supporting 5,659 people to isolate at home around Auckland – this includes 2,580 cases.

A message from The Spinoff’s new editor, Madeleine Chapman

Like any good door-to-door salesperson, I’m about to cheerily introduce myself and then, in the very next breath, ask you for money. Hi! I’m Madeleine (or Mad) Chapman, previously an intern at The Spinoff, then a staff writer, senior writer and now editor. It certainly wasn’t the plan to step into this role in the middle of a delta outbreak, nor did I think my first weeks on the job would unfold alongside New Zealand’s largest city slowly coming out of stagnation. But despite the strange and unfortunate circumstances, The Spinoff team has stepped up once again, working tirelessly (and mostly from our bedrooms) to bring you the most important news when you need it, and the lighter moments when things are looking a little bleak. We’ve been able to continue this work because of the ongoing contributions from our members, and I can’t thank you enough.

But I can boldly ask that you consider becoming a member if you aren’t one already. If you’ve read something on our site recently that you enjoyed or appreciated, consider it a koha for that alone, because every dollar donated through The Spinoff Members is used to create more of the work you see every day. And with Christmas around the corner (which I’m finding genuinely hard to believe), there’s no such thing as shipping delays on a membership of The Spinoff bought for whānau and friends.