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There are 60 new community cases of COVID-19 to report today; 56 in Auckland and four in Waikato. As at 10am, 38 of these cases are linked and 22 remain unlinked, with investigations continuing to help determine their connection to the outbreak.

Cases

• Number of new community cases: 60
• Number of new cases identified at the border: Two
• Location of new community cases: Auckland (56) Waikato (4)
• Location of community cases (total): Auckland 2,085 (1,362 of whom have recovered); Waikato 56 (10 of whom have recovered); Wellington 17 (all of whom have recovered)
• Number of community cases (total)*: 2,158 (in current community outbreak)
• Cases infectious in the community : 36 of yesterday’s 92 cases have exposure events
• Cases in isolation throughout the period they were infectious : 56 of yesterday’s 92 cases have no exposure events
• Cases epidemiologically linked: 38 of today’s 60 cases
• Cases to be epidemiologically linked: 22 of today’s 60 cases
• Cases epidemiologically linked (total): 1,957 (in the current cluster) (166 unlinked from the past 14 days)
• Cases in hospital: 43 (total): North Shore (7); Middlemore (13); Auckland (22); Waikato (1)
• Cases in ICU or HDU: Five
• Confirmed cases (total)*: 4,854 since pandemic began
• Historical cases: 171 out of 3,039 since 1 Jan 2021

Contacts

• Number of active contacts being managed (total):: 2,100
• Percentage who have received an outbound call from contact tracers (to confirm testing and isolation requirements): 83%
• Percentage with at least one test result: 78%

Locations of interest

• Locations of interest (total): 417 (as at 10am 20 October)

Tests

• Number of tests (total): 3,816,324
• Number of tests total (last 24 hours): 26,330
• Tests processed in Auckland (last 24 hours): 11,692
• Tests rolling average (last 7 days): 24,481
• Testing centres in Auckland: 19

Wastewater

• Wastewater detections: No unexpected detections. No detection reported in Hamilton

COVID-19 vaccine update

• Vaccines administered to date (total): 6,431,194; 1st doses: 3,593,488 (85%); 2nd doses: 2,837,706 (67%)
• Vaccines administered yesterday (total): 42,809; 1st doses: 10,392 2nd doses: 32,417
• Māori: 1st doses: 382,141 (67%); 2nd doses: 261,711 (46%)
• Pacific Peoples: 1st doses: 232,211 (81%); 2nd doses: 173,482 (61%)
• Vaccines administered to Auckland residents to date (total): 2,320,945: 1st doses: 1,277,098 (89%); 2nd doses: 1,043,847 (73%)
• Vaccines administered to Auckland residents yesterday (total): 12,770: 1st doses: 2,799; 2nd doses: 9,971

NZ COVID Tracer

• Registered users (total): 3,309,084
• Poster scans (total): 442,501,957
• Manual diary entries (total): 18,613,024
• Poster scans in 24 hours to midday yesterday: 2,197,037

New cases identified at the border

* Two previously reported cases – one border case and one community case – have been reclassified as under investigation and have been removed from the case total.

Auckland update

Public health officials are modifying the approach to suburban testing following an increase in cases, particularly on the North Shore and New Lynn.

As the outbreak is now more disbursed, the approach is moving away from suburbs of interest and will instead concentrate on areas with higher positivity rates where the risk of unidentified cases is higher.

People in New Lynn and the North Shore suburbs of Rosedale, Redvale, and Bayswater – either vaccinated or unvaccinated – are asked to get tested as soon as possible if they have even mild symptoms.

This testing will help to provide assurance that any undetected spread of COVID-19 in these communities is identified as quickly as possible.

Testing is available at Community Testing Centres in:

• Health New Lynn, Totara Health Services, McCrae Way, New Lynn – 8.30am – 4.30pm
• North Harbour Stadium, Oteha Valley Road in Carpark B – 8.30am – 4.30pm
• Northcote Community Testing Centre, Corner of College Road and Kilham Avenue – 6.30am – 6.30pm

An additional testing site will be available from tomorrow in Wairau Valley.

Testing is also available at GP and Urgent Care clinics the locations of these can be found on

Shadbolt Park, New Lynn

New Lynn’s Shadbolt Park has been reclassified as an exposure event rather than as a location of interest and has now been taken down from the Ministry of Health website list of locations of interest.

Public Health staff have looked into the event more carefully and assessed it as an exposure event as it is small and involved only a handful of people, who have all been identified and are in the process of being traced and tested. At this stage no one else is being sought in relation to the event.

Waikato update

There are four new cases to report today in the Waikato region. Two of the cases are in Te Awamutu, and two are contacts of known cases and are already isolating.

Investigations to determine how the other two cases are linked to the outbreak are underway. This brings the total number of cases in the Waikato to 56; 10 of whom have recovered.

Waikato DHB is continuing to carry out regionwide testing with 4,520 swabs taken yesterday. Testing locations in and around Waikato are available on the and the .

Pop up testing sites are continuing to operate in Te Awamutu, Kihikihi, Raglan and Whatawhata (west of Hamilton). We are continuing to encourage anyone living in these areas who is symptomatic, to get a test.

Public health unaffected by low dose and expired vaccine cases

³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾ Director COVID-19 Vaccination and Immunisation Programme Jo Gibbs has reported an incident in which six people received a low dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in the Bay of Plenty, and an incident where a small number of people received expired vaccines in Wellington.

Those in the Bay of Plenty who were affected have been contacted and offered vaccination.

The clinical processes and systems around the administration of the vaccination are being reviewed and the District Health Board (DHB) is working with the provider to strengthen these to prevent an incident like this from happening again.

Jo Gibbs also reported an incident at a vaccination site in Wellington last week where around 15 people received a COVID-19 vaccination 24 hours after it expired. No one has been harmed from receiving the expired doses.

Capital & Coast District Health Board has contacted the affected people and is encouraging them to get vaccinated again.

The Ministry apologises for what has happened and reassures the public that such incidents are not common.

Questions about the Wellington incident to the CCDHB which is working directly with the Immunisation Advisory Centre (IMAC) and those affected.