Auckland

The Assembly of God Church of Samoa is the focus of the country's largest sub-cluster of the Delta outbreak.

The country's latest victim of Covid-19 was a deacon at the Assemblies of God Church of Sāmoa.

The 50-year-old man died at Auckland's Middlemore Hospital this week after 40 days in intensive care.

His wife is also battling the virus in hospital.

Dr Maryann Heather at South Seas Healthcare in Ōtara said it's been devastating to see the impacts on the families first hand.

The 'Rally Your Village' initiative wrapped up at Auckland's Vodafone Events Centre yesterday, with more than 7000 people immunised over six days.

More events in the community are being organised, and former All Black Bradley Mika is among some of the sports stars making calls to encourage the unvaccinated to get a jab.

Former Manu Samoa halfback Junior Poluleuligaga is doing his bit to get the rugby community in south Auckland vaccinated.

It has been almost two months since Auckland, Counties-Manukau and North Harbour have played in the competition because of Covid-19 restrictions.

The decision comes after government declined New Zealand Rugby's third travel exemption application to get the teams out of the region.

The NPC season will continue with the 11 provincial unions outside of the Auckland region, and NZR has confirmed there are plans to set up a separate Super City Series for the three Auckland teams once they are able to resume playing.

Ardern announced the changes for people who may need to cross the Auckland boundary at today's media briefing on the Delta outbreak.

There are eight new cases of Covid-19 in the community today and four in managed isolation.

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield also spoke at the briefing.

Ardern says from 11.59pm tonight, people will be able to leave Auckland into a level 2 environment if they:

In a statement the Health Ministry said there are now a total of 1177 community cases associated with the latest outbreak of the Delta variant of the virus.

All of the latest cases were identified in Auckland.

The ministry said one of today's community cases had previously been under investigation and is now confirmed and linked to the current outbreak. "The case has now recovered. The case spent 14 days in a quarantine facility along with household members who also tested positive for Covid-19."

Mt Eden, Massey, Māngere, Favona, Ōtara, Papatoetoe and Manurewa are under increased scrutiny by health officials because of their links to mystery cases or clusters that may have unexpected cases.

Counties Manukau District Health Board chief executive Margie Apa said it was most important they get tested if they had symptoms – but they also wanted people without symptoms to come forward.

St John said two patients in a critical condition have been taken to Auckland City hospital, one patient in a moderate condition has been taken to Waitakere Hospital and one patient in a moderate condition has been taken to Middlemore Hospital

Heavily armed police and ambulances are at the scene at LynnMall in New Lynn.

Police said the incident is still unfolding, but can confirm that a man has entered a supermarket and injured multiple people.

He was located by police and shot, and has died at the scene.

Photo RNZ 

There are 10 cases in the community and almost 70 locations of interest in Auckland and Coromandel.

Shopping malls, bars and cinemas across Auckland have been added to the Ministry of Health list of locations of interest meaning potentially thousands of people are now considered contacts.

Last night, malls in Albany and New Lynn, and supermarkets in different parts of Auckland were added.

So far, the earliest potential exposure site dates back two weeks to 3 August.

The evening will be an opportunity for both male and females who are eligible to represent Samoa’s national teams in the future.

Games will take place against an Auckland local amateur club opposition.

Both national sides last competed at the 2019 Pacific Games held in Apia which saw Samoa’s women’s team win a silver medal against Papua New Guinea, 3-1.

The Samoan men’s national team have made two appearances in the OFC Nations Cup in 2012 and 2016, while the women last entered the OFC Women’s Nations Cup in 2018.

 Taking this into consideration, the OFC Executive Committee has agreed to a range of changes to the football calendar, including the cancellation of this year’s OFC Champions League.

 It will mark the second consecutive year that no winner of the Champions League will be crowned after last year’s competition had to be abandoned following the group stages due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

 A number of options were explored for this year’s tournament but given the border closures throughout the Pacific it became impossible to operate the event.