New Zealand

Flights will now take place from the middle of November through into December.

The government had responded to a request for a delay from the National Emergency Operation Centre, which is tasked with co-ordinating and monitoring the flights.

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There were also five cases reported in managed isolation.

There was no media conference. In a statement, the Health Ministry said 46 of the cases are unlinked. There are now 287 unlinked cases from the past 14 days.

There are 50 people in hospital, including four people in intensive care. The Ministry said the average age of those in hospital is 44.

Yesterday the Ministry of Health reported 104 community cases of Covid-19.

The two new cases in Waikato - one in Te Awamutu and one in Hamilton - remain unlinked, along with five other cases in the region.

The case flew from Rotorua and arrived in Blenheim on Thursday. They were tested upon arrival after developing a sore throat.

"The initial test, including a follow-up swab, returned a weak positive result."

The ministry said the case is now isolating awaiting the results of further testing.

The case is considered low risk, due to their likely late stage of infection.

The ministry said initial case interviews suggested the case was linked to the Te Awamutu cluster.

The Ministry of Health said 94 of the cases were in Auckland and eight in Waikato. Thirty of the cases are household contacts.

Forty of the new cases remain unlinked and there are 199 unlinked cases in the past 14 days.

There were 60 new community cases yesterday.

All of the Waikato cases were in the Te Awamutu area, the ministry said. Seven had already been linked to known cases.

One of the Waikato cases travelled to Hawke's Bay last Friday, but returned to Te Awamutu before testing positive.

After placing her hand on the Bible as requested by chief justice Helen Winkelmann, Dame Cindy recited the oaths of office in both English and Māori.

She is the first wāhine Māori to hold the position, and is of Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Hine, Ngāti Kahu and British descent.

Dame Cindy was born in Whangārei in 1958 and is the eldest of six children.

She was most recently the chief executive of the Royal Society - Te Apārangi, has been a Children's Commissioner and Pro-Vice-Chancellor Māori at the University of Auckland.

The 2022 schedule was announced on Tuesday with the series to kick off with a pair of men’s and women’s rounds in Dubai starting in November.

But while Hong Kong returns as a stop, Sydney and Hamilton (New Zealand) have missed out because of its stringent pandemic protocols.

Instead, Spain will play host for the first time with men’s and women’s events scheduled in Malaga and Seville from January 21-23 and January 28-30.

Toulouse in France will also welcome teams in May next year.

Signed on 8 September 2021, the PASO Support Programme is a five-year New Zealand Aid Programme partnership which provides PASO’s 10 Pacific Island Member States with continued strategic capacity support to improve their international aviation safety and security compliance.

New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), Deputy Secretary, Pacific and Development Group, Mr. Jonathan Kings said ultimately improving Pacific aviation safety and security means better connectivity for Pacific people and enables sustainable regional economic development and prosperity.

A number of the highest vaccination rates among Pasifika are in densely-populated areas like South Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.

In the South Auckland area, some suburbs with a population of more than 2,000 Pasifika, saw vaccination rates for the first dose in the early 70s.

This included Sutton Park (72 per cent), Clover Park North (71 per cent) and Otara East, Mangere Mascot and Mangere Central (all at 70 per cent).

Consultation has begun on the Pacific Languages Strategy which is aimed at increasing the use of Pacific languages in New Zealand.

Minister for Pacific People's Aupito William Sio said the strategy will allow for more effective leadership and co-ordination across government and supporting communities to drive language revitalisation.

Aupito said unfortunately fewer people are using Pacific languages than they did a couple of decades ago.

He said this strategy celebrates the value of languages and everyone is invited to have their say not just Pacific people.

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: