By RNZ.co.nz. Republished with permission.
There are 215 new community cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand today, the Ministry of Health has confirmed.
In a statement, it also said a person has died from Covid-19 in Auckland City Hospital. The patient was in their 50s and was admitted to hospital on 17 November.
“Our thoughts are with the patient’s whÄnau and friends at this deeply sad time.”
It also said there are 88 people in hospital including six in ICU.
Of the new cases today, 196 were in Auckland, 11 in Waikato, four in Northland, one in Bay of Plenty, two in Lakes and one in MidCentral that was announced yesterday.
All four cases announced in Northland today are linked to existing cases. One case is in WhangÄrei and three are in Kaikohe.
A case in WhangÄrei Hospital has been discharged.
In Waikato, six of the 11 cases today are still to be linked to existing cases. Six cases are in Huntly, three from Kawhia, one from Te Kuiti and one from Åtorohanga.
In Tauranga, one close contact, of a Covid positive person who visited a Tauranga retirement village, has returned an initial negative test.
Three cases are at the border, including one historical case.
The number of active cases being managed is 6450.
And as at 10am this morning, there areĀ 153 locations of interest.
A Flourish data visualizationTo date, 91 percent of people have had their first dose (no change from yesterday) and 84 percent of people have had their second dose.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday announced that New Zealand would move into theĀ Covid-19 Protection Framework (also known as the traffic light system)Ā from 11.59pm on Thursday 2 December.
She also saidĀ hairdressers and barbers in Auckland would be permitted to open from this Thursday, provided they required proof of vaccination from customers.
Ardern urged the fully-vaccinated to download their vaccine passes.
As of 10.30am this morning, more than 1,470,000 requests for a My Vaccine Pass has been processed, the ministry revealed.
The ministry also said that dialysis patients were now eligible to get the booster Pfizer vaccine, due to being immunocompromised.
New recommendations have been released on the Ministry of Health website determining who is eligible to receive a third shot.
In October, a third primary dose of the vaccine was recommended for people who are severely immunocompromised because they are at higher risk of sever outcomes from Covid-19.
Yesterday sawĀ 205 new community cases and the death of a man in his 40s reported.
Thirty of those cases were outside Auckland, with 20 in Waikato, five in Bay of Plenty, four in Northland and one in TaupÅ.
