There are 45 new Covid-19 cases in the community on Wednesday, all of which are in Auckland, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield has confirmed.
Bloomfield gave the updated figures at the 1pm briefing alongside Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins in Wellington.
The total number of cases in the Delta outbreak is now 1230.
It comes after Auckland had shown a steady decline in recent days in case numbers with just eight community cases recorded on Tuesday.
Bloomfield conceded the figure was "the largest we've had for some time" but tried to give some reassurance with information he had.
"First, 33 of these new cases are known to be household or other close contacts of existing cases and many of them have been isolating throughout their infectious period at home or at an MIQ facility," Bloomfield said.
"Of these, 26 are household contacts and 12, for example, come from just two households where there are six in each.
"Many of these cases were expected; on Monday, I indicated there were between 45 and 50 cases at that time likely to arise amongst household and other close contacts who had already been identified and we're seeing some of them come through now."
The new case numbers were announced by Dr Ashley Bloomfield. (Source: Other)
Bloomfield added 12 of Wednesday's cases are yet to be linked to the outbreak but for six of those cases, "potential links" are already visible.
With the large figure in mind, Bloomfield also reiterated how important it was to have Aucklanders continue to abide by Level 3 restrictions and those who have returned to work to do so safely and responsibly.
"Some of our [yet to be linked] cases today may have been working in essential or permitted businesses during their infectious periods," he said.
"This emphasises the importance of everyone in Auckland continuing to abide by Level 3 measures - they're there for a reason."
There are currently 16 cases in hospital, all of which are in Auckland; two in North Shore, seven in Middlemore and seven in Auckland. Three of the cases are in ICU.
The Ministry of Health is managing 951 active contacts tied to the Delta variant outbreak.
As of 10am on Wednesday, there are 91 locations of interest in total.
No unexpected detections of the virus were found in wastewater collections over the past 24 hours.
More than 15,400 tests were processed yesterday, of which 8537 were in Auckland.
The Ministry of Health also administered 44,649 Covid-19 vaccines on Tuesday of which 13,519 were first doses and 31,130 were second doses.
Auckland remains in Alert Level 3 while the rest of New Zealand is at Alert Level 2.
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