However, all have of them are in Managed Isolation Quarantine
Wellington, December 19, 2021
There are 55 new community cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand today and five more cases of the Omicron variant in recent international arrivals, according to the Health Ministry.
The new Omicron cases in MIQ take New Zealand’s total to 13. Four of these cases remain in managed isolation. One person has now recovered and has been released.
The Ministry statement said that the recovered case arrived from London via Singapore on December 7, 2021. This case tested positive on the first day and was closely managed in MIQ.
The person was never in the community while infectious.
Covid-19 by numbers and areas
Of the new community cases, 41 are in Auckland, with the remainder spread between Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Taranaki.
In Waikato, four new cases were reported overnight; three are in Te Kuiti and one is in Tokoroa. Of these cases, three are linked to an existing case and one case remains under investigation to determine any links to previous cases.
There are four pop-up and dedicated testing sites operating throughout Waikato today with sites in Hamilton, Te Kuiti, Huntly, Taumarunui and Otorohanga, the Ministry said.
Two people are receiving care at Waikato Hospital.
There are seven new cases in Taranaki. Of these, four are linked to the Eltham cluster, two are linked to the New Plymouth case and one will be officially transferred to Auckland’s case numbers as they live there for work purposes but have a permanent Taranaki address.
There are three new cases in Tauranga today – all linked and contacts of previous cases.
There are currently 56 people in hospital, with six in intensive care or a high dependency unit – 10 in North Shore Hospital; 26 in Auckland; 15 in Middlemore Hospital: two in Waikato and three in Tauranga.
Vaccine update
The eight millionth dose of the Covid-19 vaccine has now been administered in New Zealand.
This includes first doses, second doses and boosters, as well as third doses intended for those who are immune compromised. The tally includes both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines.
More than 15,000 doses of the vaccines were delivered yesterday.
Mid-Central and Hutt Valley have now reached 90% first doses for Maori, becoming the fourth and fifth DHB areas to achieve this milestone.
Yesterday 18,412 people were tested for Covid-19.
There were 39 community cases announced yesterday and another four new cases of Omicron within MIQ, taking the total to eight.
There were 49 people in hospital yesterday with five of these in ICU or HDU.
All passengers on flights with Omicron cases are now required to complete ten days in MIQ. Other arrivals spend seven days in MIQ and three days in self-isolation.
“We are well placed to manage Omicron cases with isolation and testing requirements for all new arrivals, robust infection and prevention control and PPE measures at airports and MIQ facilities, and frequent surveillance testing of staff who have any contact with recent international returnees,” the ministry said in a statement.
Whole genome sequencing is undertaken on positive cases at the border to identify if these are the Omicron variant.
A boy under the age of 10 became the youngest person with Covid-19 to die in New Zealand, data on the Ministry of Health website revealed on Friday, December 17, 2021. The data said the child was a Maori boy, registered to the Counties Manukau DHB.
The ministry said the detection of further Omicron cases was not surprising given its rapid spread around the world.
-Published under a Special Agreement with www.rnz.co.nz
