There are 175 new Covid-19 cases in the community on Saturday, made up of 159 in Auckland, eight in Waikato, two in Northland, five in Taranaki and one in Taupō, the Ministry of Health has confirmed.
The five new cases in Taranaki were announced by the ministry on Thursday night but have only been added to the official tally on Saturday.
They are part of a household of six cases in Stratford, of which there is a clear link to the current Delta outbreak.
"Public health staff have tested five other people identified as close contacts. Three have returned negative results, including two people who’d been in the Wairarapa. We’re awaiting two further results," the ministry said.
In Northland, the two new cases both have links to known cases.
As for the eight new cases in Waikato, so far seven have been identified as contacts of existing cases.
Public health staff are investigating the remaining case to find a link.
Four of the cases are from Hamilton, three are from Ōtorohanga and one location is yet to be confirmed.
So far, 78 of the new cases are linked to the current Delta outbreak.
The remaining 97 are under investigation to find a link.
The total number of cases in this Delta outbreak is now 5371, of which 1991 have recovered.
There are now 93 people with Covid-19 in hospital, up from 85 on Friday, including nine in intensive care or a high dependency unit.
There are 36 at Auckland City Hospital, 30 at Middlemore Hospital, 25 at North Shore Hospital and two at Waitakere Hospital.
The average age of people with Covid-19 in hospital is 51.
There are 4996 contacts linked to this outbreak, of which 76 per cent have been contacted and 69 per cent have received at least one test.
As of 12pm on Saturday, there were 127 locations of interest on the Ministry of Health's website, including nine new exposure sites.
On vaccines, 22,951 jabs were administered across the country on Friday, made up of 6343 first doses and 16,608 second doses.
In total, more than 7.16 million Covid-19 vaccinations have been administered in New Zealand to date.
"There were strong vaccination numbers around Northland yesterday and we want to thank Northlanders for continuing to play their part," the ministry said.
The region has been slower than most in uptake of the Covid-19 jab.
Find out how your region is doing here.
There were 1,517 people vaccinated in Northland on Friday, with about 60 per cent of those in the Far North.
"More than half of everyone vaccinated in Northland yesterday identified as Māori," the ministry added.
"There also continues to be a good turnout for testing with 1,249 swabs taken throughout Northland yesterday. The testing volumes continue to be high in Dargaville, Kaiwaka and Kaitaia."
On Friday, 29,688 Covid-19 tests were processed, including 13,571 in Auckland.
In total, more than 4.43 million tests for Covid-19 have been processed since the pandemic began.
"Public health staff are renewing their calls to anyone in Auckland who is displaying any symptoms, no matter how mild, to get tested. The testing centres at Northcote, Balmoral and Wiri continue to operate extended hours to increase access to testing," the ministry said.
"We wish to reiterate our thanks to frontline testing staff across the region – in the past seven days there have been 101,423 tests received at labs and testing teams have been out in all weathers to do their bit for the Covid-19 response."
Public health staff are also supporting 3,333 people to isolate at home in the Auckland region, including 1655 Covid-19 cases.
As well, 234 people in Waikato are isolating at home, including 89 cases and 145 contacts.
There were also two new border cases, one of which is a historical case, to report on Saturday.
The total number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand is now 8121 since the pandemic began.
Saturday's update comes after 201 new community cases on Friday.
Auckland and parts of Waikato are at Alert Level 3 Step 2, with the rest of the country at Level 2.
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