Kei ngā iho pūmanawa o te pūnaha hauora, whaikaha hoki, tēnā rā koutou katoa.

As we prepare for another week of responding to COVID-19, it’s important we take time to reflect on the gains we’ve made over the past several weeks: we’ve seen a significant rise in Māori vaccination rates, with over 54% of our people having received one dose of the vaccination and 27% of our people now fully vaccinated; we’ve also seen a positive response from whānau towards Alert Level restrictions and rules, with high levels of compliance and thousands of Māori turning up to get tested.  

Our kaimahi hauora and Māori health providers have also been working incredibly hard to support our communities and keep them safe against Delta. Nā reira, he mihi nunui tēnei to all of you throughout the motu, but especially to our people in Tāmaki Makaurau, for getting us to where we are today.

Heoi anō, we still have some mahi to do before we can confidently say we’ve knocked out COVID. You can help by continuing to follow your relevant Alert Level restrictions and upholding our tikanga hauora – if you’re māuiui, stay home and get tested, and please continue to encourage your friends and whānau to get vaccinated.

18 new community cases in Aotearoa

• There are 18 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 1,165.

• Since the outbreak started, 951 people have recovered giving us an active total of 214.

• Of today’s 18 new community cases, 16 have already been epidemiologically linked and investigations continue for the remaining two cases.

• Only eight, or 50%, of today’s new cases have been infectious while in the community.  

• Of the new cases that have arisen over the past fortnight, only five remain unlinked, which is great news for our response.

• There are currently 12 people in hospital across Tāmaki Makaurau, with four in intensive care. One person is in North Shore Hospital, five 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 across Tāmaki Makaurau remains a priority

• Regarding testing in Tāmaki Makaurau, we are continuing to focus on Clover Park, Māngere, Favona, Ōtara, Manurewa, and Mount Wellington/Sylvia Park. Over 980 tests taken from these suburbs were processed yesterday. Thank you to all our whānau in these areas for getting out and supporting our response.

• There continues to be good uptake of testing for people connected to Clover Park with over 2,140 tests processed since last Sunday. Ka mutu, we are continuing to encourage Clover Park residents, and those in the surrounding areas, to get a test regardless of whether they have COVID-19 symptoms.

• We have also seen good testing numbers for Mt Wellington residents, with over 1,300 tests processed in three days. The nearest community testing centres for people living in the Mt Wellington/Sylvia Park area are the pop-up CTC at the Auckland Netball Centre in St Johns and the Mt Smart Stadium Community Testing Centre in Penrose.  

• A new pop-up testing centre opens today at the Tuakau Rugby League Club. From today, the Pukekohe pop-up community testing centre will be at the Pukekohe Netball Centre.

• Our kōrero for testing remains the same – please get tested if you are a contact, have visited a location of interest at the specific dates and times, are connected to a suburb of interest or have any symptoms of COVID-19 – even those with mild symptoms need to get tested and isolate at home while waiting for test results.  

• For all testing locations nationwide, check out Healthpoint.

Over five million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered

• We’ve hit another milestone today with over five million doses of the COVID-19 vaccination administered throughout the motu. Of those, more than 3.23 million were first doses and more than 1.78 million were second doses.  

• I want to mihi to all our kaimahi hauora on the frontline for leading our vaccination rollout. Your hard mahi is helping to keep our communities safe.

• Yesterday, more than 51,472 doses were given across the country. That’s broken down into 19,350 first doses, and 32,122 second doses.

• In Tāmaki Makaurau, there were 20,272 vaccinations administered yesterday. To date, more than 1.82 million doses have been administered across the rohe. Of those, 1.17 million were first doses, covering 82% of their population, and 653,342 were second doses, covering 46% of the population.

• For the Māori rollout, 309,516 of our whānau have received one dose of the vaccination, and 156,823 have received the second dose and are fully vaccinated.

• Vaccinations are one of the best defences we have against future outbreaks, that’s why it’s critical we continue to encourage our friends and 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.