30 Jun 2021

Covid-19: One case in managed isolation investigated, a million doses of vaccine to be delivered in July

2:36 pm on 30 June 2021

There is one new Covid-19 case in managed isolation today and none in the community, the Ministry of Health has reported.

Watch the update here:

In a statement, the ministry said the new case arrived in the country from Afghanistan via the United Arab Emirates on 16 June and was now in an Auckland managed isolation facility.

It said the case was not in the Novotel Auckland Airport managed isolation facility, so is not linked to the two positive day 12 tests which were reported on yesterday.

It also said it would investigate the reason for the day 12 positive test.

"Yesterday we reported the full travel histories for cases 1 and 2 were still being investigated.

"We can now confirm those two cases travelled from Kuwait via the United Arab Emirates. "

Update on Sydney traveller

The ministry said so far, 2618 people have been identified as contacts of the Australian person who visited Wellington between 19 and 21 June.

Of those 2618 total contacts, 2505 or 96 percent of people have returned a negative result, eight additional people have had a swab and are awaiting a result; 14 people have been granted a clinical exemption and eight have returned overseas, which means their home jurisdiction will be following up with them, it said.

"The remaining contacts are being actively followed up by contact tracing teams."

The numbers

The are 31 active cases in New Zealand.

The ministry said the seven-day rolling average of new cases detected at the border is three.

Since 1 January 2021, there have been 76 historical cases, out of a total of 570 cases.

The total number of confirmed cases in the country is 2386.

Yesterday there were 1379 Covid-19 tests processed in the Greater Wellington region.

On Tuesday, 10,097 tests were processed across New Zealand and the total number of Covid-19 tests processed to date is 2.28 million.

Update on Wellington

Wellingtonians and visitors were still being urged to check locations of interest, the ministry said.

"If you live in the Greater Wellington area, or were in the region between 19 and 21 June, we urge you to continue to check the locations of interest that were visited by the Australian traveller to the city."

"People who have been at any of these locations at the relevant time should immediately isolate at their home or accommodation and contact Healthline on 0800 358 5453 for advice on testing."

The ministry reminded people that there is a Health Act section 70 notice in place that places a legal requirement on all people who were at locations of interest at the relevant times to follow the instructions regarding isolation and testing.

Vaccine update

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said it was a "very quiet week on the Covid response front"; the first 360 doses of the vaccine was delivered to the Chatham Islands yesterday in stormy conditions.

The remote community is identified as a priority group.

As of midnight, 149,608 doses of vaccine have been delivered, an increase of more than 130,000 doses on last week.

Just over 705,000 New Zealanders received a first dose and more than 440,000 have received a second dose.

In group 3, 206,406 have had a first dose, and 91,477 have had a second dose.

There was now a bar chart showing vaccinations by group per week and a table showing cumulative vaccinations for each group.

"Overall we continue to track ahead of plan, and it's about 8 percent ahead of plan, mindful that we have some tight delivery schedules that we're working for and we're managing supply very closely."

He said New Zealand is in a period of tight supply, as outlined yesterday, but a million doses were expected to be delivered across July.

By the time the next shipment arrives next week, less than a day's worth of vaccines were expected to be left in the freezers.

"That is a deliberate decision ... we would rather have vaccines in people's arms than waiting in fridges."

He said vials could be dispatched to DHBs within hours.

DHBs were continuing to contact everyone in group 3, and by 23 July everyone in that group who is enrolled with a GP should have received an invitation to book their vaccine.

GP vaccinations were continuing to increase.

Hipkins said the online booking system would be used when the group 4 rollout began and would be available for the general public to view from the end of July, around the 28th.

He said IT teams had been working well into the night to integrate all the data to make that possible.

The Janssen vaccine is the next likely vaccine to be approved in New Zealand. The Medicines Assessment Advisory Committee is in the final stages of making a decision on granting provisional approval for it.

On testing, Hipkins said 10,097 tests were reported today, and he acknowledged those administering them and those who had repeatedly come forward to be tested.

He said within a few days the milestone of 150,000 New Zealanders would have come through MIQ.

"It has been an incredibly successful system and that has been the result of extremely hard work and dedication."

Members of the ministry's public health team are monitoring the situation in Australia, Hipkins said, with more than 12 million Australians - close to half the population - covered by lockdown restrictions.

Quarantine-free flights from all of Australia were still paused until 11.59pm on Sunday, at which point flights would begin again for states including Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and ACT. Travellers would need to supply a negative pre-departure test and anyone who had been at a location of interest in the past 14 days was not allowed to travel.

On border worker vaccinations, the latest figures showed that 83 percent - including those who were only briefly in border areas as part of their work including truck drivers - had two doses.

Another 3 percent had received at least their first dose. The remainder had either not been vaccinated, were exempt or were unable to be matched to their vaccination number.

Work on the next iteration of the border order would extend the vaccination requirement to a much bigger group of border workers, as Hipkins said yesterday, Bloomfield said.

Asked if it's acceptable we're running out of vaccine, Hipkins said we're getting vaccines "as fast as we can".

He said on the Janssen vaccine, it is still going through the approvals process, "dotting the 'i's and crossing the 't's".

Bloomfield said research showed that herd immunity using the vaccine to protect New Zealanders requires a very high of vaccination rate, but notes that was assuming the vaccine is the only defence against it. He said other public health measures also provided protection, and it was uptake of the vaccine that would allow a reduction of reliance on those.

He said in the UK, "virtually all the people being admitted to hospital or dying from Covid are unvaccinated, and virtually all the infections there now are delta variant, so this shows the effectiveness of vaccination in protecting individuals and of helping prevent that wider population morbidity and mortality and impact on our health system."

Hipkins said vaccination rates in New Zealand as well as around the world were key to being able to reduce other public health measures, but focusing only on herd immunity at this point is "not particularly helpful".

Group vaccine figures:

  • Group 1 first dose 55,649; second dose 50,917
  • Group 2: 389,721; 282,167
  • Group 3: 206,406; 91,477
  • Group 4: 53,287; 19,985

Hipkins said a very small group of people who cannot have the Pfizer vaccine for medical reasons may be able to get Janssen but at this point the country is "not working on a choice-based campaign, we're working on a pfizer-based campaign", but notes that other countries which have approved multiple vaccines largely don't offer a choice. Bloomfield noted that Janssen can also be stored for up to two years and could be held in case of significant disruption or donated to other countries.

Hipkins said he was expecting a similar number of doses to be given this week as was given last week, with 150,000 to be delivered next week with bigger deliveries after that "and then ramp up again".

He said about 10 percent of first doses and 9 percent of second doses have gone to Māori.

"We do need to see those numbers increasing for Māori and that will be a bigger focus as we get into groups 3 and 4."

"We have to do better in that regard," he said.

He said the ministry had found that when there were pockets of vaccine hesitancy, that is partly was down to incomplete information and when those people sat down and were given the full brief they ended up saying "let's get on with it".

Bloomfield said with between 150 to 200 vaccination sites open daily it is expected to increase to over 800 sites nationwide by mid-August.

Bloomfield said the decision to go with Pfizer had not affected the approval timelines for other vaccines. He said the logistics around a programme built around a single vaccine was easier but that did not mean it would be impossible for other vaccines to be used.

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