Covid: 11 new cases, Tauranga locations of interest

by Peter Newport - Sep 17, 2021

From RNZ and the Ministry of Health:

There are 11 new cases of Covid-19 in the community today, the Ministry of Health has announced.

All are in Auckland and just two of the new cases are not yet linked to current cases.

There has now been a total of 1007 cases linked to the current community outbreak.

There were also five new cases in MIQ.

Yesterday, the ministry reported 13 new cases in the community, as numbers continued to trend down.

Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay said today there are currently nine epidemologically linked sub-clusters.

There are also 10 unlinked sub-clusters that have emerged - two are active, three are contained and five are dormant. She said this meant the country can be cautiously optimistic that the current outbreak was being contained.

"What that tells us is that we re closing in around this outbreak and we can be cautiously optimistic about the containment of it," Dr McElnay said.

About 15,000 tests were processed yesterday - giving a seven-day rolling average of 13,000.

Dr McElnay said more than 7000 people in Auckland got tested yesterday and more than 58,000 people have been tested across Auckland in the past week.

She said a positive wastewater test result had been recorded today from sample collected on Monday in east Auckland - covering Pakuranga, Bucklands Beach and Shelly Park.

17 September

Cases  
Number of new community cases 11
Number of new cases identified at the border Five
Location of new cases Auckland
Location of community cases (total) Auckland 990 (535 of whom have recovered); Wellington 17 (15 of whom have recovered)
Number of community cases (total) 1,007 (in current community outbreak)
Cases infectious in the community * Nine (60%) of yesterday’s 15 cases have exposure events
Cases in isolation throughout the period they were infectious * Six (40%) of yesterday’s 15 cases
Cases epidemiologically linked Nine of today’s cases
Cases to be epidemiologically linked Two of today’s cases
Cases epidemiologically linked (total) 973 (in current cluster) (13 in past 14 days unlinked)
Number of sub-clusters Nine epidemiologically linked subclusters. The three largest subclusters are the Māngere church group: 384; and Birkdale social network cluster: 79; secondary community transmission associated with the Māngere church group 164.
And ten epidemiologically unlinked subclusters.
Cases in hospital 14 (total): North Shore (2); Middlemore (8); Auckland (4)
Cases in ICU or HDU Three
Confirmed cases (total) 3,658 since pandemic began
Historical cases, since 1 Jan 2021 (total) 149 out of 1,840 since 1 Jan 2021
Contacts  
Number of active contacts being managed (total): 1064
Percentage who have received an outbound call from contact tracers (to confirm testing and isolation requirements) 94%
Percentage with at least one test result 88%
Locations of interest  
Locations of interest (total) 135 (as at 10am 17 September)
Tests  
Number of tests (total) 3,206,325
Number of tests total (last 24 hours) 15,419
Tests in Auckland (last 24 hours) 7400
Tests rolling average (last 7 days) 13,177
Testing centres in Auckland 23
Wastewater**  
Wastewater detections Auckland eastern suburbs (catchment includes Pakuranga, Shelley Park, Bucklands Beach)
COVID-19 vaccine update  
Vaccines administered to date (total) 4,569,255; 1st doses: 3,015,345; 2nd doses: 1,553,910
Vaccines administered yesterday (total) 60,506; 1st doses: 36,666; 2nd doses: 23,840
Māori 1st doses: 282,828; 2nd doses: 135,945
Pacific Peoples 1st doses: 182,388; 2nd doses: 93,880
NZ COVID-19 tracer  
Registered users (total) 3,224,773
Poster scans (total) 363,829,166
Manual diary entries (total) 16,437,191
Poster scans in 24 hours to midday yesterday 2,478,712



*Yesterday we reported 13 community cases, however in today’s reporting of yesterday’s cases who were infectious in the community, we are reporting 15 – this is due to two different data systems and a small lag in data reportage.

**Recovered cases can continue shedding viral matter for weeks after recovering.
With more than 700 recovered cases linked to this outbreak, we will see detections of COVID-19 in wider wastewater that are likely linked to recovered cases. Nonetheless, public health officials will continue to investigate positive detections and take urgent repeat samples where appropriate.

Historical cases identified at the border

Arrival date From Via Positive test day/reason Managed isolation/quarantine location
*4 September Russia UAE Day 11 / routine Auckland
*4 September Russia UAE Day 11 / routine Auckland
12 September Philippines Australia Day 3 / routine Auckland
15 September Germany UAE Day 0 / routine Hamilton
17 September UK Singapore Day 1 / routine Christchurch



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