Thursday 30 September, 1pm

There are 19 new cases in the community - 18 in Auckland and one in North Hauraki.

The North Hauraki case is a student from Mangatangi school. They have been in isolation for the past ten days, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said at the 1pm conference.

The student is one of 98 students and staff who have received day 12 tests. 96 negative results have been returned, one yet to return, and this one positive result.

These cases bring the total community cases of this outbreak to 1249.

18 of today’s cases are household contacts, and one is a possible outside contact.

Of yesterday’s spike in cases to 45, Dr Bloomfield said four of these are yet to be linked to known clusters.

Not reported as part of the numbers today is a positive result in a fully vaccinated managed isolation worker at Naumi Hotel in Auckland.

“This case is still being investigated to determine if it is border-related or part of the existing community outbreak. Urgent whole genome sequencing is being done to help shed light on this,” Dr Bloomfield said.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern asked that people in Auckland’s Henderson and Papakura suburbs in particular to get tests even if they are only experiencing mild symptoms, and reiterated that vaccines are key to fighting this outbreak and beyond.

“Vaccines matter. They keep us safe and help us to control this outbreak and will literally give you more options in the future.”

Only three percent of cases in this outbreak were fully vaccinated, Ardern said.

83 percent of eligible Aucklanders now have their first dose. Across the rest of the country 80 percent of eligible people have either had their first dose or are booked to

“It is possible to hit 90. And we need everyone to put that effort in.”