There are 23 new Covid-19 cases in the community, Auckland reaches new vaccine milestone

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There are 23 Covid-19 cases in the community, director general of health Ashley Bloomfield says.

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins revealed 80 per cent of eligible Aucklanderes are vaccinated.

Twenty-two of the new cases are linked and one is unlinked.

Health teams are investigating the one unlinked case from yesterday while 13 people are in hospital and two in ICU.

The new cases included six within one household, he said.

Bloomfield announced that one-quarter of the residents in Auckland's Clover Park had now been tested which was pleasing as that had been a suburb of interest.

It comes as people in Auckland got their first chance to get a takeaway meal or a taste of the freshly made cafe-style coffee they had been longing for in just over five weeks.

Others took the chance to head out for a round of golf or a splash of surfing, with surfers pictured catching some huge waves at Muriwai Beach.

Bloomfield revealed this morning that some of the positive cases in the current outbreak had happened because of transmission between households.

He told Three's AM Show there had "clearly" been some interaction between households that had led to some of the new cases.

"I dare say that wouldn't be unique," he told the programme.

Because of the nature of Delta spreading liberally inside households, he said we could see about 50 or 60 new positive cases over the next two weeks still.

Three new locations of interest have been announced by health officials this afternoon - a laundromat, dairy and a large Auckland supermarket.

• Pak'nSave Māngere: Corner of Bader Drive and Orly Avenue, Māngere
• Crystal Laundromat Manurewa: 4/439 Roscommon Rd, Clendon Park
bull; Clendon Foodmarket: 2/439 Roscommon Rd, Clendon Park

All three locations were visited by a Covid positive person last Wednesday, September 15.

The laundromat and the Clendon Foodmarket - a dairy - are in the same shopping complex on Roscommon Rd.

A person with the virus was at the laundromat from 3.05pm to 3.30pm on that day.

The dairy was visited by a Covid case shortly after that, between 3.38pm and 3.45pm.

A total of 14 new cases were announced in the Ministry of Health's update yesterday. Thirteen were from Auckland and one from the Upper Hauraki region.

That person is a household contact of three people - including two children - who contracted the virus after being linked to a Mt Eden remand prisoner who is thought to have caught the virus before being transferred from Auckland to a house in the Firth of Thames on September 8.

All but one of yesterday's new cases had been epidemiologically linked. Authorities were still trying to work out how the 14th person was linked to the current outbreak.

Vehicles line up outside the McDonald's restaurant Lincoln Road, Henderson, West Auckalnd just after 12:30am. Photo / Hayden Woodward

Fifteen people are fighting Covid-19 in hospital - 10 at Middlemore Hospital in South Auckland. Four patients are at Auckland City Hospital and one person is being treated at North Shore Hospital.

Four are in an intensive care unit or high dependency unit.

Authorities say there are 10 epidemiologically linked sub-clusters within the outbreak.

"Of these, two are active, seven are contained and one is dormant," the ministry said yesterday.

11 sub-clusters unlinked

But 11 sub-clusters are not linked to the outbreak.

"Of these, three are active, three are contained and five are dormant."

One historical Covid case was identified at the border, an arrival from the US on a direct flight to Christchurch last Friday, September 17.

The traveller tested positive on day zero of their routine testing schedule.

Number of locations of interest ease back

Health officials continue to encourage people - especially essential workers - to check the Ministry of Health's website for locations of interest that have been connected to a person with Covid-19.

There has been a marked decrease in the number of locations of interest being released by health officials in the past few days, despite the new cases in Waikato.

Just one exposure event was identified in the health ministry's update this morning - the Countdown Māngere Mall supermarket, at the Māngere Town Centre, on Bader Drive.

A person who has since tested positive for the virus was there last Thursday, September 16, between 11am and 1pm.

It is the fourth time the supermarket has been linked to a Covid positive case or cases in the past two weeks.

The supermarket was also visited by a person with the virus on Tuesday, September 14, Sunday, September 12, and Thursday, September 9.

Anyone who was there at the affected times is asked to monitor their health for 14 days after the date of their visit and to get a test if symptoms start to show up.

The latest an infected person has been out in the community was three days ago, on Sunday, when they were at Countdown Botany Downs on the corner of Te Irirangi and Tī Rākau Drives.

They were there for two hours between 12.30pm and 2.30pm. The same advice is being given to shoppers and staff who were there at the same time - watch for any flu-like or Covid symptoms over the next fortnight.

For more information visit covid19.govt.nz.

This article was first published on the NZ Herald and is republished here with permission.