Coronavirus

There are 10 cases in the community and almost 70 locations of interest in Auckland and Coromandel.

Shopping malls, bars and cinemas across Auckland have been added to the Ministry of Health list of locations of interest meaning potentially thousands of people are now considered contacts.

Last night, malls in Albany and New Lynn, and supermarkets in different parts of Auckland were added.

So far, the earliest potential exposure site dates back two weeks to 3 August.

Jacinda Ardern said that genome sequencing has detected the Delta strain, and that it originated in NSW.

"We are dealing with the Delta variant ... our case has originated in Australia."

"Now the job is to work out how and when it got here,” Ms Ardern said.

The NZ Government will examine whether the positive case leaked from one of the country's managed isolation facilities

New Zealand has detected an additional two COVID cases, bringing the total in the current outbreak to seven.

Dr Daoni reported that the latest cases are three males from Western Province. He said the NCC will be sending a team to Western Province, as they did with Madang, to help with contact tracing and provide technical advice and guidance on how to respond to the cases on ground. 

The Deputy Controller also said testing in Papua New Guinea has reduced since March, and therefore it is difficult to know how widespread the transmission of Delta Variant is. 

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told RNZ's Morning Report one of the new cases is a nurse at Auckland Hospital.

"The health workforce are very well versed and mapping these issues and have done in the past.

We have had COVID-positive cases in our health workforce before. What's different on this occasion is that we have this individual who is fully vaccinated."

Ardern said the four new cases were the workmate of the 58-year-old Devonport man and the workmate's close or household contacts.

There are over 23,000 active cases in isolation with three quarters of them at home.

The death toll is now at 368 - 366 of them from the latest outbreak that began in April.

Chief medical adviser Dr Jemesa Tudravu said 386 individuals were admitted at the COVID-19 isolation wards at the hospitals.

He said over 40 percent of these patients were on oxygen support.

Dr Tudravu said 19,905 COVID-positive people were under home isolation in the central division since April.

The government said many people dying of COVID-19 had not given healthcare workers a chance to treat them.

Fiji's Health Ministry reported 398 new cases of COVID-19 and five deaths for the 24 hours to 8am yesterday.

That compared with 568 cases and 13 deaths in the previous 24-hour period.

Health Secretary Doctor James Fong said there were enough ventilators in health facilities across the country to accommodate the COVID-19 patients.

Working alongside other frontline health workers, Solomon plans and delivers COVID-19 awareness campaigns and community engagement in Kerema and Kikori districts.

Her efforts are fundamental to ensuring accurate information about health and hygiene practices under the niupela pasin, and the benefits of vaccination, are widely shared and understood.

Solomon is applying many of the skills she developed when studying an Australia Awards Short Course in family and child health at Queensland University of Technology in 2019. 

A training on Assistive Technology products in Papua New Guinea was launched on Tuesday. The WHO supported pilot project involves PNG, Iraq and India.

The assistive products and technologies such as walking aids, reading glasses, mobility aids will be made available for those who need them in the communities.

Dr Anna Maalson from WHO said this is part of the universal health coverage agenda and by 2030, it will ensure that can access the essential services.

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said Hipkins said from 11.59pm on 15 August, travel from Indonesia and Fiji would be restricted to New Zealand citizens, their families, and parents of dependent children who were citizens.

“Public health advice suggests steps must be taken now to minimise the risk of COVID-19 entering unimpeded through our border,” Hipkins said.

“These stronger measures for specific countries have been enacted to reduce the risk of possible transmission, which is particularly important as countries deal with the Delta variant of Covid-19.”

Although the Fiji National Blood Service has a regular pool of blood donors which kept blood supply sufficient, the current challenges of the country's COVID outbreak is keeping donors away, which is a huge problem for the country's three largest hospitals.

The Fiji Red Cross Society's Neomai Kafoa, who is the focal point for its COVID-19 work, said the situation was so serious that they had 85 volunteers on the phones urging friends and family to donate blood.