There have been two more deaths related to Covid-19 in New Zealand.
This brings the total death toll to four, Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay says.
McElnay reported 29 new cases today, 20 confirmed and nine probable. She said 422 people with Covid-19 in New Zeland have now recovered, 49 of those in the last 24 hours.
Both of the latest two people to die of Covid-19 were elderly - a man in his 80s passed away at Wellington Public Hospital yesterday and had a link to an established cluster which won't be identified.
He first became unwell on March 26 and was admitted on March 28.
The second was a man in his 70s who died in Burwood Hospital, Christchurch, after being among the group transferred from the Rosewood Rest Home.
He tested positive for the virus on April 9.
McElnay couldn't rule out other underlying conditions
Because of the level 4 alert, McElnay said they understood families and whanau could feel separated from their loved ones.
New Zealand's second death from Covid-19 was confirmed yesterday after a 90-year-old woman with underlying health conditions passed away in Burwood Hospital.
She was one 20 residents hospitalised from the Rosewood Rest Home after someone tested positive at the facility.
The other death was West Coast woman Anne Guenole, 73, who passed away in hospital on March 29, two days after testing positive for Covid-19.
"We want you to know that our health system will continue to do all it can to continue the fight against Covid 19," McElnay said.
There are 15 people in hospital with Covid-19 throughout the country and five of those are in intensive care, she said.
There is one ICU case each in Wellington, Middlemore, Hawke's Bay, Dunedin and North Shore.
In the South
The person in the Dunedin ICU is in a critical condition, McElnay said.
There are five new confirmed or probable cases of Covid-19 in the SDHB area, the Ministry of Health said today.
That brings the number of cases in the South to 207.
New Covid-19 cluster in NZ
Three of the four deaths in New Zealand are linked to clusters.
There are now 13 clusters of Covid-19 across the country.
The George Manning residential care facility in Christchurch is this country's 13th Covid-19 cluster.
At the George Manning rest home where there are 14 cases, there was a mixture of residents and staff and McElnay said the virus was "well contained" there.
The Director of Public Health also gave further details on two previously established clusters in Auckland.
One of the clusters is linked to a private party in Auckland while another cluster can now be linked to a daycare facility for children with disabilities
McElnay couldn't give the date of the private function in Auckland.
She said there was ongoing transmission happening from people at the function, which was currently linked to 35 cases so far.
It wasn't a workplace function, but a private function, McElnay said.
McElnay said they hadn't missed an opportunity to contact tracing by not naming the Auckland clusters because the contact tracing was ongoing behind the scenes.
McElnay said family members of the Rosewood rest home should contact the local DHB directly for answers about what to do.
The investigations into how people at the Rosewood rest home were infected are still ongoing.
McElnay said the Canterbury DHB made the right decision to move the patients to provide the "extra level of support".
At Rosewood, McElnay said the group was "frail and elderly" and the impact of Covid-19 for that group could be a "very unpleasant illness".
McElnay said the would tell all the DHBs today to contact all of their aged care facilities and tell them about what procedures they should already have in place.
Frontline workers test positive for Covid-19
McElnay said there was now three nurses who had tested positive from Waikato Hospital and investigations were ongoing but the nurses were all close contacts out of the workplace.
The supermarket worker in Flaxmere who'd tested positive had a family link to a case, McElnay said.
- additional reporting ODT online
