17 October 2021 – 1.30pm –
A COVID-19 case has been confirmed in Kihikihi today.
The confirmed case follows two positive COVID-19 detections in wastewater samples taken from Te Awamutu on Tuesday and Wednesday last week, which also include flows from Kihikihi and Waikeria Prison.
The Kihikihi case was one of four new cases in the Waikato, one in Hamilton and two in Raglan, bringing the total number of COVID-19 community cases in the Waikato region to 42. Two of these cases have recovered.
Pop-up testing is available at the Te Awamutu Events Centre on Gorst Avenue from 11am – 5pm today. No appointments are necessary and residents should be prepared to wait and must stay in their vehicles while awaiting the test. Testing will also be available in Kihikihi tomorrow (location to be confirmed).
Anyone in the area who has symptoms of COVID-19, have family members who are symptomatic, or who travels in and out of the area regularly for work.
Waipā Deputy Mayor Liz Stolwyk said the person did the right thing by getting tested.
“If this person hadn’t got tested, we would still be unclear as to where the two positive wastewater results originated so I would like to thank them for being responsible and taking swift action. It’s important that we support them what will be a very stressful time.”
Stolwyk also urged other residents feeling unwell to get tested too.
“If anyone else in the community is showing symptoms, please do the right thing and get tested too and self-isolate at home until you have the result. We need to do all we can to stop the spread and identifying cases as soon as possible is the first step.”
The news follows a successful Super Saturday vaccination nationwide drive with 129,995 doses administered – 39,024 first doses and 90,971 second doses as at 10pm last night.
Locations of interest for the Kihikihi case have not yet been updated on the Ministry of Health website, health.govt.nz, but with new locations added throughout the day, residents are urged to check back regularly.
The full list of testing centres and vaccination centre locations in the Waikato are available at healthpoint.co.nz and the Waikato District Health Board website, waikatodhb.health.nz/your-health/covid-19-in-waikato/cbac/
Sanders Pharmacy at 3/670 Cambridge Road, Te Awamutu is open from 9am to 3pm on Sunday for vaccinations. Bookings are essential so to book your spot, head to bookmyvaccine.nz.
Vaccination is our number one protection against COVID-19. Residents of Waipā District who haven’t already been vaccinated are urged to do so.
As of 15 October 2021, Kihikihi was ranked in the bottom 19 percent of all suburbs in New Zealand with a first vaccination rate of 74.3 percent and 48.5 percent of the population receiving two doses of the COVID-19 vaccination. Over a quarter of the residents in Kihikihi Central remained unvaccinated.
Waipā is at COVID-19 Alert Level 3 until Monday 18 October, with a decision on any changes to alert levels to be made on Monday at 4pm.
