Covid-19 update for 30 November: 134 new community cases today

By RNZ.co.nz

There are 134 new community cases of Covid-19 reported in the community today.

In a statement, the Ministry of Health said the new community cases are in Northland, Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty and the Nelson/Marlborough regions.

“We are also advising of two additional cases in Nelson-Tasman region. This brings the number of cases in the region to three. Due to a technical error, these three confirmed cases in Nelson-Tasman will be officially included in our figures tomorrow,” the ministry said.

There no additional cases to report today in Hawke’s Bay, Lakes, Taranaki, MidCentral, Wairarapa, or Wellington.

Seventy-one of today’s new cases are yet to be epidemiologically linked to the current outbreak.

Today there are 89 cases in hospital – 15 in North Shore, 36 in Auckland, 34 in Middlemore, three in Waikato and one in Rotorua. Of these cases, 56 are not vaccinated or not eligible to get vaccinated.

There are also nine cases in ICU or HDU.

That brings the total number of community cases in the current outbreak to 8431.

Northland

There is one new case in Kaitaia. Public health interviews are underway to identify a link.

Auckland

Today, there are 116 new cases. Health staff are now supporting 3844 people to isolate at home, including 977 cases.

Waikato

Of Waikato’s eight new cases four are in Te Kūiti, one in Huntly, one in Hamilton, one in Ngāruawāhia, and one in Te Awamutu.

Five of today’s cases have been linked to previous cases and the remaining three are under investigation.

There are six pop-up and dedicated testing sites operating across Waikato today in Hamilton, Ngāruawāhia, Ōtorohanga, Thames and Te Kūiti.

Health staff are assisting 118 cases to isolate at home.

Bay of Plenty

For the nine new cases in the region, one is in the Whakatāne district, three are in Tauranga, and five are in the wider Western Bay of Plenty.

All are close contacts of previously reported cases and were already isolating at home when they tested positive.

On vaccinations, there were 40,972 total doses administered yesterday – including 6213 first doses, 11,862 second doses and 21,431 booster doses. To date, 92 percent of eligible people in New Zealand have had their first dose and 86 percent are fully vaccinated.

The ministry said as at 10am today, there are 152 locations of interest.

Yesterday, there were 182 new community cases in the country.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern also announced yesterday which regions will move into red and which into orange as the new traffic light system comes in on Friday.