There have been a record 206 new community cases of Covid-19 reported in New Zealand today, as the total number of vaccinations in this country tops 7 million.
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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 are yet to be linked to earlier cases, with 623 unlinked cases in the past 14 days.
The ministry later sent through another statement saying an additional case in Northland had been confirmed. All Northland cases are close contacts of existing cases. They had all been isolating since been told they were close contacts, and as such there are no new locations of interest, Northland District Health Board said via the ministry.
The DHB also said further testing of samples from the recent Mangamuka and Hokianga cases has established a link between these and an Auckland case.
There are now 18 cases in the region. All are isolating at home.
Two of the four new cases in Waikato have been linked to earlier cases.
The Ministry said the 206 community cases numbers reported today are "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.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said today's case numbers were "not unexpected". The r-value remains between 1.2 and 1.3, she said.
There have now been 4240 cases in the current community outbreak and 6981 since the pandemic began.
Case numbers doubling every 12 days - expert
Covid-19 modeller University of Canterbury professor Michael Plank said case numbers were roughly doubling every 12 days - on par with projections.
There was no sign of case numbers levelling out soon, he said.
Ten to fourteen days after Auckland's restrictions are eased next week, there is likely to be another step up in the numbers, Plank said.
Hospitalisations seem to be going up rapidly, and that will need to be monitored closely, he said.
Ardern said the hospital data includes people in ED, and the average time a Covid patient is spending in hospital is two days. Reports from hospitals was that new available treatments were making a difference, she said.
"We regularly check in with our health teams on the ground as to what they're seeing with hospitalisations. Absolutely, capacity is still available, still absolutely able to treat and meet the needs of all those coming through hospital."
Seven million doses given
The Ministry said 7,007,962 doses have 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.
"We urge anyone over 12 who hasn't yet been vaccinated or have received their first dose at least three weeks ago to roll up their sleeves and get vaccinated - it's never been easier."
There were 27,892 doses given yesterday, including 6422 first doses and 21,470 second doses.
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Wastewater testing
The Ministry also confirmed last night that wastewater samples in Gisborne and Napier have tested positive for Covid-19.
It said today that further samples will be collected over the next few days with results expected next week.
"At this stage, the detections are not linked to any known cases of Covid-19 which could indicate that there are undetected cases in these communities.
"We are asking anyone with any symptoms in these places - no matter how mild - to get tested, especially anyone who has travelled outside of these regions recently."
Porirua tangi
Health authorities are also encouraging those involved in a tangi in Porirua on Wednesday this week to get tested for Covid-19, the Ministry said.
"Their assessment is that the risks to wider public are low following reports of a person who had tested positive in Auckland last month and who travelled from Auckland to Porirua. They are assessed as unlikely to have been infectious as they travelled at the very end of their 14 day quarantine period."
But Wellington Regional Public Health is recommending those linked with the tangi to be tested, particularly if they have symptoms.