More than 20,000 contacts in the Auckland outbreak have now been identified, Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield has confirmed.
Dr Bloomfield said more than 12,000 of them have been contacted, and 62 percent have returned a test result.
He says there will be more than 1200 contact tracers in call centres around the country over the next few days.
Dr Bloomfield and Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins are now providing an update in regards to the current outbreak.
Watch the update here:
There were 62 new cases of Covid-19 in the community reported in New Zealand in the past 24 hours.
A record 80,000 New Zealanders got a vaccine yesterday, while testing numbers also reached a record high – nearly 50,000 across the country.
“Every test that is processed helps us,” said Hipkins.
Vaccine bookings are open to everyone over age 30 from today.
Hipkins said the government is bringing on board more vaccination facilities, at a rate of about 50 more locations per week.
He said they have streamlined the way primary care providers are brought on board, halving the amount of time it takes and streamlining the reimbursement process.
He said the government is also working on getting supermarket workers vaccinated as a priority and feedback has been extremely positive so far. From tomorrow some more border workers will be required to have had at least one dose, and by the end of September the wider border workforce will also need to have been vaccinated.
About 2,932,455 doses have been delivered so far, he says, over a million of those in Auckland.
Dr Bloomfield said said racist remarks directed at the Samoan community were “disappointing and frankly gutless”.
“I’m asking everyone in the country to be kind. The virus is the problem, not people, people are the solution. Be part of the solution.”
He said the Pacific community has been incredibly responsive and thanked community leaders for their efforts.
Meanwhile, New Zealand is staying in alert level 4 lockdown until at least midnight on Friday, and Auckland until at least midnight on Tuesday.
