An elderly woman with COVID-19 has died, case numbers continue to fall; police say checkpoints are operating smoothly and the nation is running short of building supplies.
By the numbers:
There are 20 new cases, all in Auckland
16 are linked to previously known cases and four are not
43 people with COVID-19 in hospital, seven people are in intensive care
There are now 782 community cases - 765 in Auckland, and 17 in Wellington
Two new cases identified in managed isolation and quarantine
On Saturday 86,544 vaccines were given, taking the total to 3,772,754 doses administered.
There was no media conference on Saturday. In a statement, the Health Ministry said a woman in her 90s who was a confirmed case of COVID-19 died in North Shore Hospital last night.
It said she had a number of underlying health conditions, which meant it was not clinically appropriate for her to receive ventilator or ICU care.
The woman's family shared a message, through the Ministry of Health: "The whānau is devastated and shocked by the loss of their loved one and wish to thank all of the essential workers who have guided and helped them over the past few days."
One of her family members urged everyone to take COVID-19 seriously.
"This is real," he said, and called on everyone to follow health advice issued by authorities.
New Zealand's official COVID-19 death toll now stands at 27.
It is the first death attributed to the coronavirus since mid-February. Before this, nobody in New Zealand had died from COVID-19 since September 2020.
Construction sector under pressure
National stocks of Pink Batts insulation and other building supplies are being exhausted.
Auckland's level 4 lockdown has cut off both the manufacture and distribution of all but essential supplies.
The CBS cooperative of nearly 700 construction companies in Canterbury says several product lines are at critical levels.
These include some roofing steel, wallboard, glass, paint and aluminium extrusion used in windows and doors.
Executive member Mike Blackburn says timber framing ordered now might not be delivered till December or even next year.
Traffic volumes low at checkpoints, police say
Police say checkpoints in place at northern and southern thoroughfares into and out of Auckland operated "smoothly" overnight, with low numbers of people travelling through.
At the five northern checkpoints (operating since midnight 2 September) 992 vehicles have been stopped, and of those 24 have been turned away.
At the five southern checkpoints (operating since midnight 31 August) 12,728 vehicles have been stopped, and 444 of those have been turned away.
Since lockdown level 4 began, police have issued 3257 infringements nationwide.
Of them, 2898 were for breaking the Health Order, for failing to stay at home except for essential travel, a police statement said.
Officers have charged 174 people with 185 offences related to lockdown and health orders. Five of those charges relate to a person assaulting, threatening or hindering an officer, the statement said.
Another 465 people were given warnings.
Disappointment over Christchurch events
A large South Island venue company says it's gutted that many large events people have been looking forward to are unlikely to happen this year.
Venues Ōtautahi runs many Christchurch venues including the town hall, arena, and stadium.
It's making preparations for the country remaining in alert level 2 until Christmas.
Its chief executive, Caroline Harvie-Teare, says in that scenario as many as three-quarters of the more than 100 events scheduled for the rest of the year will likely be postponed or cancelled.
She says this is incredibly disappointing.
Mayor urges compliance
The Mayor of Wellington is urging people to play their part so the city can drop further down the COVID-19 alert levels.
The city is the only one besides Auckland with active cases in the current outbreak, but moved into level 3 on Wednesday.
Andy Foster says it's good that some businesses are back operating, but many are still affected.
"There are a lot of businesses, particularly hospitality, retail, tourism-facing businesses - businesses which rely on people-to-people contact, where it's really really tough.
"They can't operate properly in level 3, and we need to get ourselves down into level 2 and 1."
Foster says there's no room for complacency and people must maintain contact tracing, mask wearing and physical distancing.
RNZ
