There are 71 new Covid-19 cases in the community on Thursday - all in Auckland - Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay has confirmed.
McElnay gave the updated figures at the 1pm briefing alongside Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson in Wellington.
The total number of cases in this Delta outbreak is now 1790.
Of the 71 new cases, 32 of the cases are yet to be linked to a current case. McElnay added 21 of Wednesday’s 55 cases remain unlinked from Auckland.
McElnay said the two Waikato cases announced on Wednesday remain unlinked, although some potential links had been identified.
Results of whole genome sequencing were expected on the cases later on Thursday, she said, and the case investigation remained ongoing.
Dr Caroline McElnay called the news "sobering" but not unexpected. (Source: Other)
McElnay also confirmed there was an unexpected Covid-19 detection in wastewater samples to report on Thursday. Covid-19 was detected in wastewater samples from Te Awamutu and Raglan. Follow-up samples are being taken.
She added to Thursday's "sobering" news that the Ministry of Health expects daily cases to double over the next week but reiterated officials believe they can get the outbreak under control.
There are currently 33 cases in hospitals of which 17 are in Middlemore Hospital, 11 are in Auckland Hospital and four are in North Shore Hospital. The other case is in Palmerston North Hospital. Five of those cases are in ICU or HDU.
The Ministry of Health currently has 2322 contacts linked to this outbreak, of which 79 per cent have been contacted and 77 per cent have received at least one test.
On Wednesday, 28,646 tests for Covid-19 were processed throughout the country, including 13,960 from Auckland.
In total there has been more than 3.6 million tests for the virus processed since the pandemic began.
On vaccinations, 68,787 doses were administered on Wednesday, made up of 15,704 first doses and 53,083 second doses.
Wednesday's vaccinations took New Zealand's total to date the six million milestone overall, made up of 3,496,757 first doses and 2,548,056 fully-vaccinated Kiwis.
There were also one new Covid-19 cases found at the border on Thursday.
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