A patient with Covid-19 at Middlemore Hospital has died, Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay has confirmed.
The man in his 50s had underlying health conditions and was a confirmed case of Covid-19.
The patient spent a total of 40 days in ICU, the Ministry of Health said in a statement
He was admitted to Auckland's Middlemore Hospital from home on August 27.
The death has been linked to the Assemblies of God (AOG) Church of Sāmoa subcluster in the South Auckland suburb of Māngere.
Church spokesman Jerome Mika said man was connected to the congregation's subcluster.
He said support was being wrapped around the whānau and he urged people to respect their privacy, with the family and wider community understandably devastated.
There are 39 new cases in the community to report today, McElnay said.
Of these new cases today, 30 are in Auckland and 9 are in Waikato and 38 of the cases are linked.
An essential worker in Whangārei has returned a weak positive Covid test result.
On the potential case, Covid Response Minister Chris Hipkins said they are an Aucklander and were in Northland when they were tested. They have since returned back to Auckland
They would be retested.
The worker was tested on Monday as part of surveillance testing and was asymptomatic, then weak result positive result came back today.
There are four of yesterday's cases which are still unlinked.
There could be an additional 36 cases in the coming days, Dr McElnay said.
There are 1420 in the current community outbreak, 1085 have recovered.
There are currently 31 patients with Covid-19 in hospital, of these seven are in intensive care or high-dependency units.
Yesterday 63,624 doses of the were administered, of these 17,592 were first doses, and 46,032 were second doses.
New Waikato cases
Health officials have also confirmed that a patient who was at Waikato Hospital's emergency department last Friday had since tested positive for the virus.
The person was asymptomatic at the time but was screened when they entered the emergency department room.
In a cautious approach, a number of ED staff are now self-isolating after being exposed to the case.
They have also been tested for Covid and results are expected today.
The total number of Covid-19 cases in the Waikato is now at 18.
The nine cases announced today are all linked to known cases as either household contacts or socially, Dr McElnay said.
Two of these new cases reside outside the Alert Level 3 boundary currently in place in parts Waikato.
One is in Kawhia and the other is in Karapiro.
Kawhia is currently the country's least vaccinated area.
Ōtorohanga district Mayor Max Baxter confirmed he had been informed of the positive case this morning.
The Herald understands the Kawhia case is a close contact of the Hamilton East case.
Waikato District Health Board is setting up a new testing station at Lake Karapiro, just south of Cambridge, in response to the new case there.
Waipā Deputy Mayor Liz Stolwyk said she had been asked to turn Might River Domain, where rowing regattas are held, into a testing station this morning.
Kawhia the least vaccinated area in NZ
Kawhia is currently outside the north Waikato level 3 boundary and Baxter said he was unsure if or where the town would be plunged into a higher alert level.
The Kawhia township is south of Raglan Harbour, Ruapuke and Aotea Harbour, about 40km southwest of Hamilton.
The Ōtorohanga District is at the bottom of the Herald's Top Towns table for percentage of people fully vaccinated - at just 32.9 per cent of the eligible population.
The Ministry of Health was currently organising setting up testing stations in the town, Baxter said.
"I was informed that there's a positive case there.
"And from that, I believe they're going to be setting up more testing centres in town, in Kawhia.
"So I think there's going to be a bit more activity out there."
Baxter said a positive to come out of the Covid case could be that the Ōtorohanga district can shake its title of having the lowest vaccination rate in the country.
"Maybe this will encourage people to get vaccinated. In a report that I read, the day before yesterday, it ranked all the councils across the country in regards to both vaccinations... it's terrible that it takes a heightened awareness to inspire people to get vaccinated but that's the case," Baxter said.
"As they say, Delta is the virus of the unvaccinated."
Baxter said he understood the apprehension about having the vaccine but once they had a member of their whānau affected, they would change their tune.
"Trust me if one of their whānau or friends got seriously ill or died as a consequence I'm sure their views would be entirely different.
"It's not vaccines that takes people's liberties away, it's Delta that takes people's liberties away, it's Covid itself, in essence."
As for what to do with Kawhia in an alert level setting, Baxter said if the Ōtorohanga district was put into level 3 it didn't make sense to leave out the Waipā district, which encompassed Te Awamutu and its surrounds.
"As for lockdowns, do you just lockdown the town itself or does the extension from Hamilton go further, does that include Hamilton Airport or Te Awamutu?
"Where do you start and where do you stop, that's the biggest issue we're confronting now.
"How do you leave Waipā out of the equation, it just doesn't make sense. Goodness knows."
However, Baxter said at this stage, there was no talk of changing alert levels - the question was raised - but there were still several unknowns including how much the new case had been mixing in the community and whether they were aware they should be in self-isolation.
"Once we get those particulars sorted then a decision would be made. It could well be just Kawhia itself, but in saying that, how the hell do you get your groceries because you can't get them in Kawhia.
"You could do it but you're going to have to be bringing in supplies for a while."
Ministry advising shorter gap between doses
In response to the ongoing Delta outbreak the Ministry of Health is advising New Zealanders to consider a shorter gap between doses of the Pfizer vaccine than the current standard of six weeks.
Reducing the gap between doses to at least three weeks means more people can be fully vaccinated sooner, increasing our community immunity. The two doses of the Pfizer vaccine must be given at least three weeks apart.
In August the standard gap between first and second doses of the Pfizer vaccine was extended from three weeks to six weeks to allow us to give one dose (partial protection) to a larger number of people faster.
Since that time the Delta outbreak has increased the risk of contracting COVID-19 for everyone in New Zealand and increased the urgency for people to be vaccinated as soon as possible.
- by ODT Online and NZ Herald
