New Zealand has signed an advance purchase agreement with Pfizer-BioNTech for 8.5 million more doses of its vaccine - enough to vaccinate 4.25 million people.
Our original advance purchase agreement was for approximately 1.5 million doses - enough for 750,000 people.
This decision is based on the Pfizer vaccine being shown to be about 95 percent effective at preventing symptomatic infection and is the only COVID-19 vaccine currently approved by Medsafe for use in New Zealand.
Having one vaccine, rather than multiple vaccines with multiple protocols, will simplify the rollout. It means that everyone in New Zealand can be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and have access to the same vaccine.
Consideration will be given to how we best use doses we don’t need in New Zealand. Options include delaying delivery of the remaining vaccines until 2022 when we may need further doses and/or donating surplus doses to the Pacific and developing countries worldwide.
There are 5 new cases of COVID-19 in managed isolation to report today. One border-related case reported last night will be officially added to today’s tally.
There are no new cases in the community.
MARCH AIR CREW CASE
As reported by the Ministry last night, a border-related case of COVID-19 has been identified as part of routine surveillance testing.
The person has been transferred to Auckland’s quarantine facility.
Their household contacts have tested negative but remain in isolation at home as a precaution.
A border-related case of COVID-19 has been identified today as part of routine surveillance testing.
The case is an airline crew member who returned to New Zealand from Japan on 28 February, and returned a negative COVID-19 result. The person then returned a positive test result today after a swab taken yesterday as part of routine surveillance testing.
The person has today moved to Auckland’s quarantine facility. The individual’s 3 household family members have already been tested today and the results are all negative.
There are no new cases in the community to report today.
There is one new case of COVID-19 in managed isolation.
Of the new case:
- One case arrived on 4 March and tested positive around day 1. They have been transferred to a quarantine facility in Auckland.
The total number of active cases in New Zealand is 72.
Our total number of confirmed cases is 2043.
The total number of tests processed by laboratories to date is 1,779,213.
On Saturday, 6,733 tests were processed. The total number of tests in the last seven days is 71,831. The seven-day rolling average up to yesterday is 10,262 tests processed.
Auckland is now at Alert Level 2, and businesses can open for staff and customers.
Cafes and restaurants can open with the 3 S’s in place. Staff need to ensure that customers are seated, separated and served by a single server.
Gatherings of up to 100, such as church services, tangihanga and funerals, weddings, sports and social events are allowed – but remember you must keep 2 metres away from people you don’t know.
The rest of New Zealand is now at Alert Level 1, and we all need to be ready in case COVID-19 reappears in our community.
There are no new COVID-19 cases to report in the community.
There are 9 new COVID-19 cases to report in managed isolation.
Of the new cases:
- One case arrived on 4 March and tested positive around day 0. They have been transferred to a quarantine facility in Auckland
- One case arrived on 4 March and tested positive around day 0. They have been transferred to a quarantine facility in Auckland
- One case arrived on 4 March and tested positive around day 0. They have been transferred to a quarantine facility in Auckland
- One case arrived on 4 March and tested positive around day 0. They have been transferred to a quarantine facility in Auckland
For contact tracing purposes, anyone who attended one of the locations listed here during the relevant timeframes is considered to be a contact.
Out of an abundance of caution, we are asking individuals to follow the instructions below if they visited these locations during the times listed.
Following a possible exposure, the optimal timing for casual plus contacts to get a test is 5 days.
The advice below says what you need to do, including when you need to get a test.
Where the optimal time for a test is in the future, we’ll specify a date. Where the optimal time for a test has passed, we’ll specify the need for a test as soon as possible.