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Health Minister Chris Hipkins and Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield are giving a briefing on Covid-19.
Among today’s developments, Health Minister Chris Hipkins said alert level 3 restrictions in Auckland are helping get to the bottom of the cluster and the city would not go into level 4.
Police say waiting times at Auckland’s vehicle checkpoints are much lower, while a transport company said some essential staff were being let through and others were not despite having the same documents.
National Party leader Judith Collins told Morning Report Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern should take responsibility for a “massive failure” in border worker testing, “first for letting David Clark stay on as health minister for three months, and then appointing Chris Hipkins, who already holds several portfolios, as the new minister”.
Latest from live update:
- Six new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand to report today – Dr Bloomfield.
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Five of the cases are linked to the community and one from a person in managed isolation. -
There are 5 people in hospital, one in Auckland City and one in Middlemore Hospital. -
There are now 1299 total cases. -
23,038 tests were completed yesterday, Dr Bloomfield said. -
125 people in the community who have been moved into the Auckland quarantine facility, that includes 61 people who have tested positive, Dr Bloomfield said. -
Dr Bloomfield says the person who visited Pak N Save Glen Innes, mentioned yesterday, only visited once and the person is considered low risk therefore the contacts there are considered low risk. -
There are a limited number of personal or work reasons for being granted an exemption to travel through the Auckland border, Dr Bloomfield says there is an application process for anyone who wishes to be considered. -
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says a number of new measures are being introduced to ensure the testing strategy approved by Cabinet in June is met. -
A small team that will support health to stand up the comprehensive testing strategy is being set up, Ardern said. -
The government will also deploy about 500 extra Defence Force personnel into the quarantine facilities.
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There will now be 19 Defence Force personnel in each isolation facility. -
MBIE is looking at directly employing security guards, and they will receive a living wage.Ardern says today’s announcements are things Megan Woods has been working on for some time.Ardern says the resurgence plan has seen 136,000 tests completed in the past week.She says while there is no playbook, constant improvement is key to New Zealand’s success.
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As the plan was implemented, we then started getting in data that showed that we needed ongoing improvement.”Ardern says it is a very logistically complex operation and the testing strategy is a significant logistical exercise across multiple agencies.“No intention to move to level 4 and no need to,” she said.“Of course we will continue to see cases but no, no intention…”
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Watch the media conference here:
Source: rnz.co.nz Republished by arrangement.