More than 2.1 million booster shots have now been given nationally, with more than 15,000 administered on Sunday.
Getting the booster dose greatly reduces your chances of getting severely ill and requiring hospital care if you test positive for COVID-19, so if it’s been three months since your last dose, please book your booster today.
Additionally, 90% of Māori in Counties Manukau DHB have now received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Omicron has spread to all DHBs across the North and South Islands, but all of us can play our part to slow the spread of the virus, help protect our most vulnerable people from being infected, and ensure our health system is able to manage extra demand for services.
As always, anyone with any cold or flu symptoms that could be COVID-19 is asked to get a test and isolate at home until a negative result is returned and they are feeling well. Regardless of your test result, it is still important that anyone who is unwell stays home to reduce the spread of other viruses.
The most common early symptom of the Omicron variant is a cough, followed by a sore throat and/or runny nose.
From this morning, rapid antigen tests are now available at Auckland Community Testing Centres only to those who fit the appropriate clinical criteria. The site will determine which test (PCR or a rapid antigen test) is best for you.
Access to rapid antigen tests will be expanded further during the coming week. At this time, please do not visit your GP for a RAT test or call them for guidance on RAT eligibility at Community Testing Centres. We will be providing further updates on the rollout throughout this week.
As the outbreak grows, more people will have COVID-19 and there will be more close contacts we need to test. As planned, we will now increase the use of RATs in phase 2 and phase 3 of our response in order to relieve pressure on the PCR testing and reserve it for those most likely to have COVID-19.
Remember, only those with symptoms or who have been identified as close contacts of a case, or directed by a health professional to get tested, should be turning up at testing sites.
People who are directed to have a rapid antigen test will be given advice on what to do if they have a positive result. At the current time, they will likely be advised that they need to have a PCR test to confirm the positive result.
For a list of all Community Testing Centres in Auckland, please visit www.covid19testing.nz
As this demand has grown, some COVID-19 test results for Auckland and Waikato are currently taking longer to process at laboratories. The use of rapid antigen testing, alongside PCR testing, will improve this process at a time of exceptional demand in Phase 2, provided the Community Testing Centre queues are freely available for those who really need a test.
We are anticipating continued high demand at our COVID-19 testing sites, so our request is to, please, be patient. Our frontline staff across the health sector are doing the best they can to help in a timely way.
For a full list of testing sites nationwide, visit the Healthpoint website.
Sadly, we are today reporting the death of a patient at Middlemore Hospital.
The family has requested that no further details be released and, out of respect for those wishes, we will be making no further comment.
Additionally, we are also saddened to report the death of a patient in their 70s at Auckland City Hospital following a diagnosis of COVID-19.
Our thoughts and condolences are with both patients’ family and friends.
*These two deaths are not yet reflected in the data reported on the Ministry’s website, which will be updated accordingly.
**First and second dose percentages are for those 12+. Booster dose percentages are for 18+ who have become eligible three months after having their second dose.
* Please note, the Ministry of Health’s daily reported cases may differ slightly from those reported at a DHB or local public health unit level. This is because of different reporting cut off times and the assignment of cases between regions, for example when a case is tested outside their usual region of residence. Total numbers will always be the formal daily case tally as reported to the WHO.