New Zealand / Covid 19

Covid-19 update: Five new cases and two historical cases in MIQ, none in community

13:13 pm on 16 August 2021

There are five new cases and two historical cases of Covid-19 reported in managed isolation today, with no new cases in the community.

Photo: 123rf.com

In a statement, the Ministry of Health said two previously reported cases have recovered since yesterday's update.

The number of active cases in New Zealand is 44 and the total number of confirmed cases is 2570.

Since 1 January 2021, there have been 121 historical cases, out of a total of 752 cases. The seven-day rolling average of new cases detected at the border is five, the ministry said.

Yesterday, 3126 Covid-19 tests were processed. The total number of tests processed to date is 2,561,806.

Photo: Ministry of Health

Photo: Ministry of Health

On the Rio de la Plata shipping container, the ministry said further wastewater samples taken from Tauranga and Mount Manganui last Wednesday have returned negative results.

It also said there have been no unexpected detections to report in other wastewater samples taken around the country.

"Wastewater is an important surveillance tool to monitor for Covid-19 and can offer us an early warning of cases in the community. Any cases of Covid-19 need to be detected quickly in order to stop the virus spreading in our communities. Detecting Covid-19 in wastewater samples can help alert local communities to be more vigilant, keep up hygiene measures, and get tested and stay home if they are unwell.

"Wastewater testing is scaling up after new sites were added to ESR's testing network, bringing the total number of sites to 26. The new sites include Whangārei, Gisborne, Tauranga,Taupō, New Plymouth, Napier, Palmerston North, Nelson, Dunedin and Invercargill."

On the vaccine rollout, the ministry said more than 2.5 million doses of the vaccine have been administered to date (to 11.59pm yesterday).

Of these, 1.58 million are first doses and 918,000 are second doses, it said.

"More than 138,000 Māori have received their first vaccination. Of these, nearly 85,000 have also had their second vaccinations.

"More than 93,000 doses have been administered to Pacific peoples. Of these, more than 58,000 have also received their second doses.

"Yesterday 18,120 first doses were given, and 7,364 second doses were given, bringing yesterday's total doses administered to 25,484. This is the largest number of doses administered on a Sunday to date."

Yesterday, the ministry reported four new cases and two historical cases of Covid-19 in managed isolation since last Friday, with no new community cases.

Travel to New Zealand from Fiji has been restricted since midnight Sunday with only New Zealand citizens, their partners and children able to travel to this country under certain conditions.