There are 41 new cases of COVID-19 in the New Zealand community, bringing the total number of cases in the current community outbreak to 148.
The Ministry of Health says of the new cases, 19 are female and 22 are male.
The total number of community cases in Auckland is now 137 and 11 in Wellington.
“All of the cases have or are being transferred safely to a managed isolation facility, under strict infection prevention and control procedures, including the use of full PPE,” the Ministry said.
“As previously indicated, it’s not unexpected to see a rise in daily case numbers at this stage. At its peak last year, New Zealand had a daily total of 89 new cases.”
There are currently nine COVID-19 hospitalisations, of which eight are associated with the current outbreak.
“Of the 148 cases in the cluster, 89 are already epidemiologically linked to other community cases identified in the outbreak.”
NZ health officials are continuing investigations to determine how the remaining 59 cases are linked to the outbreak.
There are currently six epidemiologically-linked subclusters identified within this outbreak. The two largest clusters are the Birkdale Social Network cluster associated with Case A – approximately 23 confirmed cases – and a cluster associated with the AOG church in Mangere – approximately 58 cases.
“We will continue to release this information and new locations of interest as it becomes available,” the Ministry said.
There is one new case in recent returnees in a managed isolation facility.
