AUT student among 10 new delta cases of covid-19 in NZ lockdown

An Auckland University of Technology (AUT) student who was at a lecture yesterday is among the 10 new cases of covid-19 reported in the community in New Zealand today.

This takes the total to 11 cases of the highly infectious delta variant since the first one was announced yesterday.

There were three new community cases of covid-19 reported this evening by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s office. More details on the new cases will be revealed tomorrow.

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The AUT student was at a social sciences lecture at the school’s City Campus between 11.30am and 1pm yesterday.

The school has identified 84 other people who were at the lecture.

Speaking to RNZ Checkpoint, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins also confirmed there had been new cases.

“We’re seeing more cases coming through, I don’t have details of those cases. But yes, I can confirm that we have further positive test results since the press conference today.”

Not the index case
Hipkins also said it was “almost certain” the first case announced yesterday, a 58-year-old Devonport man, was not the index case connected to the border.

“Almost certain they were given covid-19 by someone else. What we’re trying to do is identify how many steps in that chain of transmission there are before we got to the Devonport case.”

He added that a decision on vaccinating people under 16 years old for covid-19 would come soon.

“I’m not announcing something on your show tonight but you can expect to hear more very shortly on that.”

Meanwhile, the Countdown supermarket chain is continuing to limit the amount of some products people can buy in Auckland and the Coromandel, as shelves empty in the latest lockdown.

The supermarket applied a limit of six on some products yesterday evening, which includes toilet paper, flour, bags of rice, dry pasta, UHT milk, frozen vegetables, baby formula and pet food.

It says it will monitor stock levels around the country and will make changes to limits if needed.

Countdown also says it has purchased an extra 2000 crates of fresh fruit and vegetables to boost its fresh produce supply.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.