There are 62 new community cases of Covid-19 today, in Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Lakes and Canterbury, reports the Ministry of Health.
The ministry is also reporting the death of a patient with Covid-19 at North Shore Hospital. The patient, who was in their 50s, was admitted to hospital on December 11.
Regional updates
Today, there are 37 new cases being reported in Auckland. Health and welfare providers are now supporting 2,152 people to isolate at home, including 579 cases.
There are five new cases in Waikato, all in Te Kūiti. All new cases are known contacts of previous cases.
There are 14 new cases in the Western Bay of Plenty. Seven cases have been linked to existing cases, while interviews with the remaining are ongoing. Contacts are being identified and will be called and given testing and isolation advice.
There are five new cases in the Lakes district, all in or near Rotorua. Following initial investigations, three cases have been linked to existing cases.
Christchurch case travelled from Auckland on Air NZ flight
There is one new case to report in Christchurch today. Public health officials are investigating recent travel to Auckland as the source of their infection.
The case travelled from Auckland to Christchurch on Monday December 20 on Air NZ Flight NZ543.
All passengers on the flight are being treated as close contacts and are required to get tested. Contact tracing is under way to contact all passengers.
Hospitalisations
- Cases in hospital: 45; North Shore: 6; Auckland: 17; Middlemore: 18; Waikato: 2; Tauranga: 2
- Vaccination status of current hospitalisations (Northern Region wards only): Unvaccinated or not eligible (24 cases / 60%); partially immunised <7 days from second dose or have only received one dose (5 cases / 12%); fully vaccinated at least 7 days before being reported as a case (10 cases/ 25%); unknown (1 cases / 2%)
- Average age of current hospitalisations: 50
- Cases in ICU or HDU: 8 (1 in North Shore; 2 in Auckland; 4 in Middlemore; 1 in Tauranga)
Nine new cases in MIQ
There are nine new cases in MIQ, who travelled from the UK, the US, Greece, Germany, the UAE, Kenya, India and Australia. The Ministry of Health’s statement does not state whether any more omicron cases have been detected.
Vaccine update
- Vaccines administered to date (percentage of eligible people): 3,971,055 first doses (95%); 3,830,209 second doses (91%); 27,613 third primary doses; 265,497 booster doses
- Vaccines administered yesterday: 1,413 first doses; 7,135 second doses; 662 third primary doses and 12,128 booster doses.
- Māori (percentage of eligible people): 498,945 first doses (87%); 453,526 second doses (79%)
- Pacific Peoples (percentage of eligible people): 269,120 first doses (94%); 255,447 second doses (89%)
Case numbers
- Seven day rolling average of community cases: 51.4
- Number of new community cases: 62
- Number of new cases identified at the border: 10
- Location of new community cases: Auckland (37), Waikato (5), Bay of Plenty (14), Lakes (5), Canterbury (1).
- Number of community cases (current community outbreak total): 10,493
- Cases epidemiologically linked (total): 7,818
- Number of active cases (total cases identified in the past 21 days and not yet classed as recovered): 1,491
- Confirmed cases (total): 13,349
Test numbers
- Number of tests total (last 24 hours): 19,027
- Tests rolling average (last 7 days): 18,265
- Auckland tests total (last 24 hours): 11,066