COVID-19 Update #89 - 13 Hakihea 2021 Rāhina, 13 Hakihea 2021COVID-19 Update Pānui no. #89.If you have symptoms of the coronavirus, call the NZ Covid-19 Healthline on 0800 358 5453 COVID-19 Pānui no. 89 E ngā pokohiwi kaha o te kaupapa o te Kōhanga Reo e hāpai nei i te hauora o ā tātou whānau mōkopuna, tēnā koutou katoa. Current situation Tāmaki Makaurau will move to orange in the traffic light setting at 11:59 pm on Thursday, 30 December. The remaining rohe in red, excluding Northland, will also move to orange at this same time. Today’s Community Cases
PM Jacinda Ardern described Auckland’s falling case numbers as “cautious optimism,” while announcing the city’s shift to the orange setting on 30 December. Other rohe at red now have an additional period of time for second doses to be administered, as they won’t reach extremely high rates of vaccination until mid-December. While there has been “enormous progress” in Northland, the rohe is 4000 shots away from meeting its 90 percent first-dose target. Ardern revealed that the difference between Northland and other rohe is those few thousand vaccinations. The decision to keep this rohe in red has been made as a precaution. Cabinet will review the reopening of New Zealand’s international border when they have more information on the Omicron variant in early January. The traffic light’s next review will be on 17 January. Vaccination Statistics The Ministry of Health has experienced a delay in reporting today, meaning the latest vaccine data is not available at this stage. We will add the vaccination statistics back into the next pānui. Rapid antigen testing for unvaccinated travellers From this Wednesday, 15 December, rapid antigen testing will be available for free at participating pharmacies for asymptomatic unvaccinated peopled aged 12 years and 3 months and over who are travelling during the holiday period. While some pharmacies will accept walk-ins, bookings are recommended. Please note that rapid antigen testing is for people who do not have COVID-19 symptoms. Rapid antigen tests will be available at 149 pharmacies around Tāmaki Makaurau from Wednesday. Results are available after 15 minutes. Evidence of a supervised negative rapid antigen test will be required for these unvaccinated travelers leaving the Auckland region and for domestic travel with some transport companies. While rapid antigen tests will at times give false positive results, any unvaccinated people who receive a positive rapid antigen test result will be strongly advised to seek a confirmatory PCR test. Furthermore, they won’t be able to travel without a negative PCR test result so please plan ahead to allow sufficient time to get tested and receive your result. This testing is vital to ensuring the Ministry of Health (MoH) continue to pick up cases and prevent onward transmission. The MoH recognises that people, especially Aucklanders, are looking forward to reuniting with family and friends but if you are unwell, please stay home and get a PCR test. To meet domestic travel requirements from 15 December, COVID-19 rapid antigen testing will be free until the end of January 2022. All our pānui are uploaded to our Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust website. You can access our past pānui here. For any further assistance, ring 0800 KOHANGA or 0800 564 2642 Kia whai i te ora, kia piki te ora, kia whaioranga. Nāku noa, Angus Hartley Tumu Whakarae | Chief Executive |