Wellington: New Zealand reported 43 new Delta variant cases of COVID-19 in the community on Tuesday, bringing the total number of confirmed infections in the country’s community outbreak to 1,664.
Forty of the new infections were recorded in the largest city Auckland and three cases were in nearby Waikato, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told a press conference.
Thirty-four community cases are being treated in hospitals, including five in intensive care units (ICUs) or high dependency units (HDUs), Bloomfield said.
There are 1,568 cases that have been clearly epidemiologically linked to another case or a sub-cluster, and a further 74 cases for which links are yet to be fully established, he said.
New Zealand also reported three new cases identified at the border in recent returnees. They have remained in quarantine in Auckland and Rotorua, Bloomfield said.
The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand since the start of the pandemic stands at 4,345, according to the health ministry.
