There are five new cases of COVID-19 to report in the community today, all linked to the Auckland cluster.   

There are seven new imported cases of COVID-19 - three men in their 30s, a woman in her 60s, a woman in her 20s, and two children. They all arrived in New Zealand on August 23 on the same Air India flight from Delhi, and tested positive around day 3 of their stay in managed isolation. 

Of the five community cases reported, four are from one household and are linked to the Mt Roskill Evangelical Church sub-cluster. 

The other case is epidemiologically linked to a confirmed case which has been genomically linked to the community cluster.

By this morning our contact tracing team had identified 2,475 close contacts of cases, of which 2,433 have been contacted and are self-isolating, and we are in the process of contacting the rest.

There are 161 people linked to the community cluster who have been transferred to the Auckland quarantine facility, which includes 88 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and their household contacts.

There are 11 people with COVID-19 in hospital today; three in Auckland City, four in Middlemore, three in North Shore and one in Waikato. Eight people are on a ward, and three are in ICU – one each in Middlemore, North Shore and Waikato Hospital.

There are seven previously reported cases who are considered to have recovered today, bringing the total number of active cases to 130. 

Our total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 is now 1,363, which is the number we report to the World Health Organization.

Testing

Yesterday our laboratories processed 11,010 tests for COVID-19, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 730,330. 

Widespread testing is a critical part of our COVID-19 elimination strategy and we continue to work with the broader health sector to carry out 70,000 tests over the next week 

In support of this, testing sites will be open this weekend, right across the country - this includes GPs and community-based assessment centres (CBACs).

Pop-up testing sites continue to move around Auckland communities to ensure nearby, easy and equitable access to testing, particularly for Mâori and for Pacific peoples. 

Today there are pop up sites in:

• South Kaipara
• Mount Smart Stadium
• Massey Community Hub
• Ranui Library
• Tongan Methodist Church in Mangere
• Mangere East Hawks Rugby League Club
• Tupu Youth Library in Otara
• Randwick Park School
• Te Matariki Community Centre in Clendon.

The full up-to-date list of testing sites in Auckland is at www.arphs.health.nz/covid19test

The Ministry of Health website has advice on where you can find testing facilities in the rest of the country - see Assessment and testing for COVID-19

If you develop symptoms consistent with COVID-19, wherever you are, please call Healthline (0800 358 5453) or your doctor immediately and have a test. 

People who work at the border or in managed isolation and quarantine facilities will continue to have tests available, and those who are at higher risk will be re-tested over the next 7-10 days. 

NZ COVID Tracer

NZ COVID Tracer has now recorded 1,895,000 registered users. There have been 331,397 posters created, and 22,455,004 poster scans to date. There have been 1,843,013, manual diary entries recorded in the app.