There are 44 new Covid-19 cases in the community on Friday - 41 in Auckland and three in Waikato - the Ministry of Health has confirmed.
The latest figures were released by the ministry in a statement as there was no 1pm press conference in Wellington on Friday.
The total number of cases in this Delta outbreak is now 1492.
Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay acknowledged in the statement the large number shouldn't be too concerning.
“We acknowledge today’s numbers are higher than recent days," McElnay said.
"This is not unexpected because there have been a number of contacts of new cases and we can expect to get fluctuations from day to day."
Of the 44 new cases, 20 are household contacts and a further 12 are connected to known cases. However, the other 12 cases are currently unlinked to the current outbreak. All three new cases in Waikato are linked.
There were also three cases identified at the border.
There are currently 25 cases in hospitals; 12 in Auckland's Middlemore Hospital, 11 in Auckland Hospital along with two in North Shore Hospital. The other case is in Waikato Hospital. Five of those cases are in ICU or HDU.
The Ministry of Health currently has 1749 contacts linked to this outbreak, of which 77 per cent have been contacted and 74 per cent have received at least one test.
The Ministry of Healh also provided an update on the confirmed Auckland case who had travelled to Northland, saying they were transfered to an Auckland quarantine facility on Thursday evening.
The case was under investigation after returning a weak positive result from a test in Whangarei earlier this week and yesterday returned a positive test result in Auckland.
Public health staff are continuing investigations to identify whether there are any locations of interest or exposure events associated with the case.
On Thursday, 29,925 tests for Covid-19 were processed throughout the country, including 10,439 from Auckland.
In total there has been more than 3.54 million tests for the virus processed since the pandemic began.
McElnay emphasised testing was key to combating the current outbreak.
"It is more important than ever that we keep testing, especially over the weekend. The Ministry of Health urges anyone who has symptoms, no matter how mild, to please get tested.”
On vaccinations, 82,303 doses were administered on Thursday, made up of 19,705 first doses and 62,598 second doses.
More than 5.6 million doses have been administered in New Zealand to date.
McElnay thanked everyone who stepped up to be vaccinated this week.
“Being vaccinated with two doses is the best way to protect yourself, your whānau and the wider community. We’ve seen people rolling up their sleeves in record numbers again, with each day’s total higher than the previous day," she said.
“Yesterday, our total doses administered of 82,303 ranks in the top 10 highest daily totals since the programme began and is the highest daily figure since 3 September, and total doses administered to Māori was a record high of 10,145. I want to acknowledge the efforts of Māori providers and communities to support people to access vaccination.
“The number of second doses administered yesterday – 62,598 – was also the highest ever second dose daily figure. The more fully vaccinated people in the community, the safer we all are – and there is now more than 51 per cent of the eligible population who have received two doses."
There were also two new Covid-19 cases found at the border on Thursday.
There were no unexpected Covid-19 detections in wastewater samples to report on Thursday.
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