Dr Ashley Bloomfield

Health officials are searching for an unknown person who could be the missing link between two infected people in one household.

Director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said two cases in one household had different mutations of the virus, which suggested an intermediate case between the two.

Officials were now trying to find that person, he said.

Bloomfield also revealed at today’s 1pm briefing that the Crowne Plaza vaccination centre is a location of interest in the source investigation into unlinked cases – but this is not linked to the MIQ facility at the hotel.

There are 11 new community cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand today – all in the Auckland region.

This takes the total number of cases in the Delta outbreak to 879, including 590 active community cases.

There are also six cases in managed isolation and two historical cases.

There are 27 people currently in hospital, all in Auckland, including four in intensive care.

Bloomfield said there were now 29 unlinked ‘mystery’ cases under investigation in the outbreak, including six today.

Several new locations of interest have been released as part of a source investigation into unlinked cases – one of those is the Crowne Plaza vaccination centre on August 23 – after the person from New South Wales left the Crowne Plaza.