By RNZ.co.nz and is republished with permission.
There have been 190 new community cases reported in New Zealand today, with 182 in Auckland, seven in Waikato and one in Northland.
Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
There was no media conference today. In a statement, the Ministry of Health said 110 of today’s cases are yet to be linked.
The ministry also said that a person in their late 60s died in Auckland City Hospital on Saturday.
The patient was admitted to hospital on 23 October for a trauma incident and tested positive on admission, it said.
“The cause of the person’s death will be determined by the coroner, including whether it may have been Covid-19 related.
“Our thoughts are with the patient’s whÄnau and friends at this deeply sad time.”
The ministry said the person’s death has not been officially reported as it is still under investigation.
There are 81 people in hospital today.
On today’s cases, the ministry said two are border-related and are on board a bulk carrier vessel which recently arrived in in Bluff from Malaysia.
“These two cases are being investigated as likely historical cases.
“The crew members were tested as part of the process for allowing a crew member to depart the vessel and fly home on compassionate grounds. All crew members remain aboard the vessel.
“Testing of the 23 crew has identified two weak positive cases. The bulk of the crew are vaccinated. None of the crew have symptoms or have reported a recent illness during the voyage.”
Results from repeat testing are expected tomorrow, it said.
Yesterday saw 113 new cases of Covid-19 while Saturday was a record high of 206 cases.
Cabinet is meeting today and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will have a press conference at 4pm to announce future changes on Auckland and Northland’s alert levels. Auckland is in its 83rd day of level 4 or level 3 lockdown.
Last week, Cabinet agreed in principle to let Auckland move to alert level 3, step 2, from 11.59pm tomorrow night.
Follow our Covid-19 live blog throughout the day
To date, 89 percent of New Zealanders have had their first dose and 78 percent are fully vaccinated.
There were 14,280 vaccine doses administered yesterday, including 3272 first doses and 11,008 second doses.
Last night all three Auckland DHBs were confirmed to have hit the 90 percent first vaccination dose milestone.
New Zealand as a whole will move on to the traffic light system, once every region reaches 90 percent double vaccination.
The system offers more freedoms than at alert level 3 and eliminates almost all lockdowns.
