Auckland

New Zealand declares State of Emergency

It is only the third time such a declaration has been made, with the previous two being for the Christchurch earthquakes and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Professor John Hopkins, Director, LEAD Institute of Law Emergencies and Disasters, University of Canterbury said the state of emergency declaration provides extensive powers to the National Controller (and by extension the government) to order individuals and groups to act in a way that is required to address the emergency.

“These powers include forced evacuations, closing roads, providing supplies, etc.

Lae City FC Set For Today’s Clash

Lae City FC plays its second match against AS Venus of Tahiti today (Sunday 07th August 2022) at 1pm.

AS Venus currently leads the Group A pool with 1 win so far.

Lae City FC has 1 draw from their first match and has to win this second match in order to stay in the competition.

Head Coach Bob Morris is happy with his pack so far, and has realigned them from Game 1.

So far, lead up training in Auckland has been favourable with the team having enough time to acclimatise and have a good feel of the international standard synthetic soccer pitches.

Lae FC Settles For Draw

The match hosted at the Ngahue reserve, home of the OFC kicking off at 12pm midday (NZ time) yesterday swayed to the Lae City FC dominance and ball possession but unable to finish off up front where it mattered.

Galaxy FC were first on the board from a deflected ball spinning into the uprights but then Lae City FC captain Emmanuel Simon retaliated with a curve ball from a corner kick to equalize in the first half.

Fears Covid-19 cases will surpass 1000 a day by Christmas if Auckland restrictions eased

It will confirm after its Cabinet meeting today whether to go ahead as planned and allow shops to open and increase the outdoor gathering limit to 25.

But with 319 new cases over the weekend, and more than 1000 in the past seven days, health experts fear daily numbers cases could hit 1000 a day by Christmas if the spread is allowed to escalate further.

Public health lecturer Collin Tukuitonga said it was not the right time to ease restrictions.

"The outbreak could explode and spin out of control," he said.

102 Covid-19 community cases in NZ today

The Ministry of Health said 94 of the cases were in Auckland and eight in Waikato. Thirty of the cases are household contacts.

Forty of the new cases remain unlinked and there are 199 unlinked cases in the past 14 days.

There were 60 new community cases yesterday.

All of the Waikato cases were in the Te Awamutu area, the ministry said. Seven had already been linked to known cases.

One of the Waikato cases travelled to Hawke's Bay last Friday, but returned to Te Awamutu before testing positive.

Vaccination vans hit Auckland streets to up Covid-19 jab rates

Vaccination Programme Leader Sarah Hartnall says the vans can travel to places where the vaccination buses can't.

"Access is really good for most people in Auckland. For some people it's hard and they might live rurally, they might have other access barriers.”

She says “these vaccination vans are about going to them and being able to go out on the little roads that our busses aren't able to get on."

Pacific, Maori and primary care providers picked up eleven of the so-called vaxi vans, and another thirty are set to go into action soon.

Auckland’s Covid-19 case numbers could soon surpass 100 a day – expert

There were 56 cases in the city yesterday, the highest since 1 September, with three in Waikato and one in the Bay of Plenty.

But there was also hope, as first-dose vaccination rates hit 86 percent.

Covid-19 modeller professor Shaun Hendy said as cases trend upwards, the outbreak was at a critical point.

"It is possible that we could end up in the triple digits so that's something that the government should be considering and it should be developing a plan for what happens ... because that will put real strain on the health system in Auckland," he said.

PM Jacinda Ardern announces new travel rules for leaving Auckland

Ardern announced the changes for people who may need to cross the Auckland boundary at today's media briefing on the Delta outbreak.

There are eight new cases of Covid-19 in the community today and four in managed isolation.

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield also spoke at the briefing.

Ardern says from 11.59pm tonight, people will be able to leave Auckland into a level 2 environment if they:

12 new community cases in Auckland - Health Ministry

In a statement the Health Ministry said there are now a total of 1177 community cases associated with the latest outbreak of the Delta variant of the virus.

All of the latest cases were identified in Auckland.

The ministry said one of today's community cases had previously been under investigation and is now confirmed and linked to the current outbreak. "The case has now recovered. The case spent 14 days in a quarantine facility along with household members who also tested positive for Covid-19."

Aucklanders in seven suburbs told to get a test even without symptoms

Mt Eden, Massey, Māngere, Favona, Ōtara, Papatoetoe and Manurewa are under increased scrutiny by health officials because of their links to mystery cases or clusters that may have unexpected cases.

Counties Manukau District Health Board chief executive Margie Apa said it was most important they get tested if they had symptoms – but they also wanted people without symptoms to come forward.