There are 92 new Covid-19 cases in the community on Friday, the Ministry of Health has announced.
The cases are in Auckland (80), Waikato (2), Northland (1), Bay of Plenty (5), Lakes (1), Nelson (1) and Taranaki (2).
Friday's 92 cases marks the first time cases have been below 100 since October 28.
The case in Nelson was reported on Thursday but is officially included in Friday's case numbers.
Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay said there were also three additional cases in Taranaki who were known contacts with an established link to the other cases.
She said the cases were isolating across three households in New Plymouth, Rotorua and Waikato.
The new cases bring the total in Taranaki to five, McElnay said.
Devon Intermediate in New Plymouth had closed as the school was linked to one of the cases.
Close contacts had been identified and testing was underway.
Caroline McElnay provided the update on Friday, December 3. (Source: 1News)
McElnay warned New Zealanders to remain vigilant, confirming "unexpected" detections of the virus in wastewater samples taken in Matamata and Tairāwhiti/Gisborne.
The Matamata detection was made on November 29 and Tairāwhiti on December 1.
Follow-up samples were underway.
Anyone with Covid-19 symptoms in these areas is encouraged to get tested, McElnay said.
There are 79 people with Covid-19 in hospital in New Zealand. Nine of those are in intensive care or a high dependency unit.
The ministry said Northland's new case is located in Kaitāia and is a household contact of a previously reported case.
The location of one of the Waikato's two new cases was under investigation, the ministry said, while the second case lives in Rotorua but is isolating in the Waikato region.
There is also a case isolating in Whitianga who had recently relocated from Auckland in compliance with the border and travel requirements. The case is currently included in Auckland’s reporting but may be transferred to Waikato.
The ministry also said three of the Bay of Plenty's five new cases are contacts of existing cases and were already isolating.
Investigations into how the other two cases are linked to the outbreak are continuing.
The case in the Lakes District is still trying to be linked to the current outbreak.
McElnay said Waitematā and Canterbury DHBs had "pleasingly" become the third and fourth DHBs to reach 90 per cent fully vaccinated.
This was after Capital and Coast DHB.
McElnay also said the average across metro Auckland DHBs had reached 90 per cent fully vaccinated.
"That's fantastic progress," she remarked.
"Tāmaki Makaurau has bore the brunt of the outbreak and its people have been the vanguard of Aotearoa's vaccination efforts."
McElnay said Aucklanders and Auckland health providers could share the credit for reaching increasing vaccination milestones.
On Thursday, 172 community cases were announced.
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