By Maggie Shui
There are 215 new community cases today: 196 in Auckland, 11 in Waikato, four in Northland, one in Bay of Plenty, two in the Lakes district and one in the MidCentral district.
There has also sadly been another Covid-19 related death. The patient was in their 50s and admitted to hospital last week.
There are currently 88 people hospitalised with Covid-19, six of whom are in ICU or HDU.
91 percent of eligible people have had their first vaccine dose, and 84 percent are fully vaccinated.
Vaccine passes
Expect to soon be asked to scan and verify your vaccine pass when you enter hospitality venues, gyms, close-contact businesses, large gatherings and events such as festivals this summer.
The NZ Pass Verifier app is now ready for businesses and events to download. This app allows businesses to scan and verify people’s vaccine passes to check they are fully vaccinated.
Essential services including supermarkets and health services cannot ask for proof of people’s vaccination status.
Vaccination and workers
The Government has also announced a new tool to help employers determine whether workers need to be vaccinated. Some key factors in the framework will include the size of the work environment, whether it’s indoors or outdoors, the proximity of the worker to other people, and whether the worker provides services to people who are vulnerable to Covid.
This tool will be refined and finalised over the next few weeks.
Vaccination is required for all workers at businesses that require vaccine passes to operate. This includes hospitality, events, gyms and close-contact businesses.