A record 206 new community cases of covid-19 were reported in New Zealand today, as the total number of vaccinations in this country topped 7 million.
There was no media conference today. In a statement, the Ministry of Health said there were 200 cases in Auckland, four in Waikato and two in Northland.
The ministry said 159 were yet to be linked to earlier cases, with 623 unlinked cases in the past 14 days.
The two new cases in Northland — which are both close contacts of earlier cases — bring the total number of cases in the region to 17. Two of the four new cases in Waikato have been linked to earlier cases.
The ministry said the 206 community cases numbers reported today were “a reminder of the infectiousness of covid-19, and particularly the delta variant, and the importance of vaccination as the number one protection against the virus”.
There are now 73 people in hospital with the coronavirus, including seven in intensive care. The average age of the people in hospital is 51.
There was also one new case reported at the border today.
There were 163 new community cases reported in New Zealand yesterday, up from 139 on Thursday. There was also a second death of a person with covid-19 isolating at home reported yesterday.
There have now been 4240 cases in the current community outbreak and 6981 since the pandemic began.
Seven million doses given
The ministry said 7,007,962 doses had been given – 3,744,702 first doses and 3,263,260 second doses.
“This is an important milestone as we push towards our target of getting 90 percent of eligible people in each DHB fully vaccinated.”
The Auckland DHB only needs 15,284 more people to get their second shot to reach the 90 percent target.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
