Aucklanders are answering the call to get vaccinated with more than 26,000 receiving a dose yesterday.
A health worker prepares to vaccinate at Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga. Photo: RNZ / Mariner Fagaiava-Muller
They were being urged to get tested this weekend ahead of an alert level decision announcement tomorrow.
Auckland Vaccine Programme director Matt Hannant said more than 4300 people were vaccinated at the Auckland Airport Park and Ride drive-through vaccination site.
The Tongan drive-through site vaccinated more than 1780 people.
"These are great numbers and we thank every person who took the time to be vaccinated for their role in protecting themselves, their whānau and community from Covid-19," Hannant said.
"We have capacity ... at many of our vaccination sites. We encourage people to come along to the drive through at Auckland Airport for their vaccination, and they are welcome to bring whānau over 12 years old to be vaccinated. No booking required."
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff said the latest figures were a fantastic sign.
"That shows that we're actually achieving what we want to achieve at the moment," he said.
"Normally it would have fallen a bit on the weekend but that figure is up a couple of thousand on Friday's figure.
"If we can keep that progress up and get up towards the 80 percent mark of vaccinations, that's the best protection we can get against the community spread of this virus."
But he did not expect that it would mean the city would be shifting down a level at Monday's announcement.
"It is a concern that today (Saturday) we did have a rise in the number of new Covid cases in the community and it is a concern that that level of transmission has jumped up after a period when those numbers were declining," Goff said.
"It looks likely that there may be a further delay in coming out of alert level 4. But really there's no alternative if we want to stamp out the transmission.
"We've made the sacrifice now for nearly four weeks and we need to stay the course."
