There are 35 new Covid-19 cases in the community on Monday, all of which are in Auckland, the Ministry of Health has confirmed.
Of Monday's new cases, two are staff members at North Shore Hospital.
They tested positive following a positive case reported yesterday in a patient receiving treatment in the dialysis unit adjacent to North Shore Hospital.
"The connection between the three cases is being investigated," the ministry said in a statement.
As well, Auckland District Health Board last night informed the ministry that a fully vaccinated staff member tested positive for Covid-19 over the weekend.
"We have been informed this morning that two further hospital staff members have tested positive. Of the three, two were tested at a community testing site while one was tested as part of routine workplace surveillance," the ministry said.
"With more than 12,000 staff, the DHB is one of the biggest employers in Auckland so it is not unexpected that there will be staff members who acquire Covid within the community."
Initial investigations have shown there are no links between this case and the NICU parent case, the ministry added.
The new cases bring the total number of cases in this Delta outbreak to 1622.
Fourteen new cases are linked to the current outbreak, including four household contacts, with 21 under investigation to find a link.
"Due to time of reporting, the previously reported case in the Bay of Plenty region is included in the case tally today, however it is understood to be under investigation, after a follow-up test returned a negative result," the ministry said.
The case travelled from Auckland to Katikati, then tested positive. But Ardern on Monday morning told Breakfast they and their family had since tested negative .
"While the case remains under investigation, the public health risk is deemed low given the person’s vaccination status, regular test history, good use of the NZ COVID Tracer app and rapid contact, testing and isolation of family members, all of whom also returned negative results," the ministry said.
In an update on a case who travelled from Auckland to Northland, the ministry confirmed a link to the current outbreak.
However, while the case remains at an Auckland quarantine facility, a person they were travelling with has not been located.
"A second person who is thought to have travelled with this case has been contacted but not yet located," the ministry said.
There are now 33 new Covid-19 cases in hospital, including seven in intensive care or a high dependency unit. There are 16 cases at Middlemore Hospital, nine at Auckland City Hospital, five at North Shore Hospital and one each at Waikato Hospital, Starship Hospital and Palmerston North Hospital.
There are now 2310 contacts linked to the outbreak, of which 78 per cent have been contacted and 70 per cent have received at least one test.
As of 1pm on Monday, there are 370 locations of interest on the Ministry of Health's website , including 20 new exposure events.
On Sunday, 15,349 tests for the coronavirus were processed, including 6916 in Auckland.
Since the pandemic began, more than 3.6 million tests for Covid-19 have been processed in New Zealand.
On Sunday, 42,226 vaccines were administered throughout the country, made up of 9083 first doses and 33,143 second doses.
In total, more than 5.83 million doses have been administered in New Zealand.
"The two best tools we have in the continued fight against Covid-19 are testing and vaccinations – the numbers for both continue to be high," the ministry said.
There were no new Covid-19 cases to report at the border, meaning the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in New Zealand since the pandemic began is 4300.
There were no unexpected Covid-19 wastewater detections to report on Monday.
Monday's update comes as Auckland, Northland and parts of Waikato are at Alert Level 3, with the rest of the country at Level 2.
Cabinet is meeting today to discuss the current alert levels.
An announcement will be broadcast on TVNZ1, 1News.co.nz and the 1News Facebook page at 4pm.
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