There are 16 new community cases of COVID-19 reported today, all in Auckland.

There is also one historical border case that has been reported, and more than 50,000 vaccines were administered on Friday.

The total number of community cases in the current community outbreak is 1146.

Of the 16 new cases reported today, 13 are epidemiologically linked, and three are being investigated to determine a link.

There are 13 people in hospital, with one in North Shore Hospital, seven in Auckland Hospital and five in Middlemore Hospital. Four people are in ICU.

As of 10am today, Saturday September 25, there are 134 locations of interest.

There have been 4,968,935 vaccines administered to date, with 3,211,763 having received their first dose and 1,757,172 having received their second dose.

There were 50,600 vaccines administered yesterday, Friday September 24, with 18,981 receiving their first dose and 31,619 receiving their second dose.

There are now 3,251,114 registered users of the NZ COVID-19 Tracer app, with 2,686,748 poster scans in 24 hours to midday yesterday, Friday September 24.

Historical cases identified at the border

*Today's cases
The one case deemed to be historical is not associated with the current outbreak in Auckland as this case initially came through the border and has been previously reported and spent 14 days in managed isolation, during which time they routinely tested negative.

They have subsequently tested positive, but this has been deemed historical and is no longer infectious.

*Historical cases
There are three historical cases being added to the tally today.

Included in the tally is today's historical community case, mentioned above; a previously reported border case now reclassified and today's border case.

Today's border case is a border worker who caught COVID-19 overseas. This case is no longer infectious.

Waitakere Hospital ED
A patient who presented to Waitakere Hospital's ED yesterday with COVID-19 symptoms is now in an Auckland quarantine facility.

This person was taken straight to a separate, dedicated area at the hospital for patients with COVID-19 symptoms – patients in this area are kept separate from each other

The patient returned a positive test and was moved to a negative pressure room before being transported to a quarantine facility following strict Infection, Prevention and Control protocols.

Interviews are continuing with public health staff to determine this person's link to a current cluster.

A small number of patients had also been taken into the same area. These patients will be monitored and tested however, there was no direct contact with the COVID-19 positive patient.

Fewer than ten patients are affected. Some of these patients have now been discharged and are being followed up by Auckland public health staff.

A small number of staff had contact with the patient, all were wearing full PPE and are fully vaccinated.

Public health officials have assessed the risk to the public to be low.

Testing today      
Testing continues across Auckland with a particular focus on Clover Park, Māngere, Favona, Ōtara, Manurewa and Mount Wellington/Sylvia Park.

There is a new pop-up community testing centre open today at the Te Hana cafe carpark. From tomorrow, the Pukekohe pop-up community testing centre will move from the Pukekohe A&P Showgrounds to the Pukekohe Netball Centre. Planning is underway for a pop-up testing centre to open in Tuakau tomorrow.

The pop-up community testing centre at the Manukau Sports Bowl, which enables convenient access to testing for people in the Clover Park area, is open this weekend from 8.30am – 4pm and will remain in place until Friday October 1.

'Please get tested if you are a contact, have visited a location of interest at the specific dates and times, are connected to a suburb of interest or have any symptoms of COVID-19 – even those with very mild symptoms need to get tested and isolate at home while waiting for test results,” says a Ministry of Health spokesperson.

For all testing locations nationwide, visit https://www.healthpoint.co.nz/covid-19/

Health appointments in Auckland
People travelling to attend a medical appointment or to access health services, including to get a vaccination, do not need to get tested to cross the Auckland Alert Level boundary.

This applies to people travelling both ways - from Alert Level 2 into Alert Level 3 as well as the other way, from Alert Level 3 to Alert Level 2, but they need to travel directly to their appointment and then return to their place of residence.