Thousands of extra kids able to get jab this week
Almost half a million of our youngest Kiwis will become eligible for vaccination against Covid-19 tomorrow.
There were 29 new cases of Covid19 in the community yesterday, with the Lakes District Health Board area reporting the highest number of cases, at 14, according to the Ministry of Health.
Eleven of the new cases were in Auckland, two in Northland and one each in Bay of Plenty and Wellington.
Just over 15,100 tests were done, slightly above the seven-day daily average of 14,918.
Twenty-nine people were in hospital, including two in intensive care or high dependency units, and all but four of those were in Auckland.
Just over 29 per cent of those in Auckland hospitals were unvaccinated, 33.3 per cent partly vaccinated and 33.3 per cent fully vaccinated, with one person’s vaccination status unknown.
The average age of those in hospital was 47.
Concerning positive tests included an Auckland rest home caregiver who tested positive to Covid-19 leading to the closure yesterday of the Ivan Ward Centre at Selwyn Village in Pt Chevalier. Residents and staff were being tested, with no positive results so far.
The worker was asymptomatic. And an MIQ worker, understood to be from Stamford Plaza Hotel,
returned a positive Covid-19 result late Friday afternoon as part of surveillance testing.
The worker is now in isolation and household contacts have all returned negative tests.
Border restrictions originally due to begin relaxing from tomorrow instead remain in place until at least late next month in a bid to delay the arrival of the highly infectious Omicron variant, which has led to infections skyrocketing overseas, including Australia where the rolling seven-day average of new infections was now almost 90,000 per day.
Yesterday, fewer cases were identified at the border — 25 — five below the seven-day rolling average for border cases of 30.
The seven-day rolling average for community cases is 25.
The Government’s decision to offer the Pfizer vaccine to children aged between 5 and 11 means as of tomorrow 476,000 kids can get their first dose. The paediatric dose is lower than that given to over 12s and the two doses would be spaced eight weeks apart.
Under the Government’s Covid-19 traffic light system, children under the age of 12 years and 3 months do not have to show proof of vaccination.