Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield provided an update on Covid-19 in the community.
Professor Shaun Hendy also provided some insights into the modelling.
- There are 15 new community casesÂ
- Most of today’s cases are household contacts. 3 cases are yet to be linked.Â
- There are 15 people in hospital with three in ICUÂ
- Suburbs of surveillance have changed with Mt Wellington being added and others like Mt Eden and Papatoetoe no longer being includedÂ
- A new testing requirement for people travelling outside Auckland for those needing to take a one-off trip. They will need a negative test result within 72 hours of travel.Â
- More than 37,000 essential workers in Auckland have been tested this monthÂ
- Section 70 restrictions governing some parts of Upper Hauraki have changed due to no evidence of any spread outside the community.Â
- Profession Sean Hendy said when work on modelling was started in March by the time it was released in June it was clear vaccination wasn't the answer to eradicating Covid.
- Ardern said vaccines alone weren't enough to counter the transmissible Delta variant.
- ‘Children can’t be vaccinated - it will reach them’ Ardern warned
- She said at high levels of vaccination level four lockdowns would be a thing of the past.
- Ardern said we were continuing to take a stamp it out strategy in our current outbreak. Today gave a glimpse of the future with high vaccination rates. "We should strive for high vaccine. That is going to be the golden ticket for New Zealand," she said.Â
- On vaccines for those aged five and over, the decision would be based on expert advice, said Ardern. "It will always be a health decision, always," she said.Â
- Bloomfield said health officials were looking at the evidence which was "promising". They were also looking at studies over vaccination in under fives, said Bloomfield.Â
- Ardern said 13 babies and 253 children under the age of 12 had been infected by Covid in this current outbreak.Â
- Ardern said the Government was taking on a range of information and modelling to help inform decisions about dealing with Covid in the long term. Vaccines matter and helped reached freedoms in society.Â
- Hendy said he was presenting a strategy that would need to be in place for at least a year, and possibly longer than that. Â
- Ardern said vaccine certificates were a live debate for the Government in its Covid response.Â
- Hendy said 90%Â vaccination coverage would mean a far lower need to use lockdowns.Â
Take your Radio, Podcasts and Music with you