COVID-19 Response Update - 24th September 2021

9 new community cases and a mass vaccination event tomorrow in Waikato

Kei ngā whakaāio whenua o te motu, tēnā rawa atu koutou katoa.

Today’s case numbers are encouraging, and they indicate our hard work is paying off. However, we’re not yet out of the woods and still have some way to go. Please help by continuing to follow your Alert Level restrictions and tikanga hauora. If you’re in Tāmaki Makaurau, please stay within your bubble, and avoid going out as much as possible. For the rest of us throughout the motu, if you’re māuiui please stay home and get tested, and if you haven’t yet gone out to get vaccinated, please do so as soon as possible.

I want to echo Minister Robertson’s mihi to Māori health providers throughout the motu for coming up with innovative ways to get whānau to come forward and get vaccinated. This Saturday in Waikato, a mass vaccination event is being held from 10am to 3pm at Hopuhopu in Ngāruawāhia. There are prizes on offer, including a trip to Rarotonga. Please help get the word out there by encouraging your friends and whānau in the Waikato to go to this event and get vaccinated. A big mihi to our providers in Waikato for making this happen.

9 new community cases in Aotearoa

• There are 9 new cases of COVID-19 in the community today, all of these are in Tāmaki Makaurau.  
• This brings the total number of cases associated with this outbreak to 1,131.
• Since the outbreak started, 902 people have recovered giving us an active total of 229.
• Additionally, there is one new case in managed isolation.  
• Of today’s nine new community cases, all have been epidemiologically linked – three are household contacts and six are contacts of known cases
• For yesterday’s 15 cases, only one person remains unlinked. Investigations into this case continue.  
• There are currently 13 people in hospital across Tāmaki Makaurau, with three in intensive care. One person is in North Shore Hospital, six are in Middlemore, and six are in Auckland Hospital. My whaakaro continue to be with these people and their whānau during this stressful time.

Testing rates need to stay high in Tāmaki Makaurau and across the motu

• Testing numbers in Tāmaki Makaurau dropped a little yesterday with 6928 swabs taken across the rohe. This compares to over 14,000 swabs processed around the motu.
• At our new suburb of interest in Mount Wellington, there were 297 swabs taken yesterday.
• In Clover Park, 1725 swabs have been taken since Tuesday. Since the 1st of September, 20.8% of that suburb’s population have been tested. While this is a great effort, we are still encouraging people in that suburb to come forward and get tested.  
• Public health officials in Tāmaki Makaurau continue to carry out surveillance testing at larger essential workplaces, and their focus next week will turn to construction and retail sectors.  
• As the Director-General mentioned yesterday, there’s a new testing requirement for people who need to travel across the Alert Level boundary for personal reasons. This is for people who want to travel from Alert Level 3 to Alert Level 2, for example, from Tāmaki Makaurau to Pōneke.
• These people will now need to carry evidence of a negative test result taken 72 hours prior to their travel or proof a test was taken within seven days.  
• There are two exceptions to this testing requirement. No test is required for
• One-way travel from Alert Level 2 to Alert 3 where people then stay in Tāmaki Makaurau,
• People attending a healthcare appointment, including for vaccinations, if they’re travelling from Alert Level 2 into Alert Level 3 and then back again. They will however require evidence of their appointment.
• Details of the testing requirements can be found on the Unite Against COVID website.
• Hei whakamaumaraha, if people are unable to provide the necessary evidence, they will be turned around.

Update on the Upper Hauraki response

• All tests in Upper Hauraki have now come back negative, except for members of the Whakatīwai household which have already been announced.
• There has also been a good uptake of vaccinations in the rohe. Over 60% of residents there have now had their first dose and 23.9% have had their second.
• As I mentioned yesterday, Minister’s met today to determine whether the Upper Hauraki would stay at Alert Level 3. They’ve now agreed the Upper Hauraki will move down to Alert Level 2 at 11.59pm on Saturday.
• We’ve had an incredible response from whānau in the Upper Hauraki which has given us confidence to shift the rohe to Alert Level 2.  I want to mihi to all our kaimahi hauora and whānau in the Upper Hauraki for their support in our response. Tēnā rawa atu koutou katoa.

Update on the COVID-19 vaccination rollout

• There have now been more than 4.91 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccination given to whānau throughout the motu. Of those, more than 3.19 million were first doses, covering 76% of the eligible population; and more than 1.72 million, or 41% of the eligible population, have had their second dose.
• Yesterday, more than 49,115 doses were administered across the country. That’s broken down into 20,983 first doses, and 28,132 seconds. It’s encouraging to see the second dose numbers on the rise.
• In Tāmaki Makaurau, there were 16,258 vaccinations administered yesterday. Overall, more than 1.7 million doses have been administered across the rohe. Of those, 1.16 million were first doses, covering 81% of the Tāmaki Makaurau population, and 626,103 were second doses, covering 44% of their population.
• For the Māori rollout, 304,397 of our whānau have received one dose of the vaccination, and 151,308 have received the second dose and are fully vaccinated.
• Please keep encouraging your whānau to book in for their vaccinations as soon as possible. It’s safe and it’s free. They can do this online or by calling 0800 28 29 26.

Please remind your friends and whānau to get information on COVID-19 and the vaccine from our trusted sources – the Ministry of Health website, Unite Against COVID channels, Karawhiua channels, and the Te Puni Kōkiri ‘COVID-19 Information for Māori’ portal.

For guidance on protecting yourself and your whānau from COVID-19 misinformation and scams, please visit the Unite Against COVID website.  

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me or my team at Māorihealth@health.govt.nz

Mā te Atua tātou e manaaki i roto i ngā āhuatanga o te wā,  

Nāhaku me aku mihi aroha,

Nā  

John Whaanga
Deputy Director-General | Māori Health Directorate
Waea pūkoro: 021 578 040  | Īmēra: John.Whaanga@health.govt.nz