Covid-19 update: 14 new cases in NZ

New Zealand has 14 new cases of Covid-19, bring the total number of cases to 66.

The country's alert level is still at two, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says.

There are five confirmed cases in Auckland, one in Northland, one in Canterbury, two in New Plymouth, two in Waikato including one in Hamilton, one in Tauranga, one in the Coromandel and one in Otago.

All are in self-isolation with close contacts being identified and followed up. Eleven of the cases have a history of international travel, while one is a close contact of a confirmed case.

Two were at the World Hereford Conference in Queenstown earlier in March, where there were a number of delegates from overseas.

There are four probable cases, and all four have previously been reported in the media.

Just over 1200 lab tests were carried out yesterday - there have now been more than 6000 tests for the virus.

Two cases announced yesterday were possible cases of community transmission. There has still been no firm link to overseas travel identified.

Bloomfield said he understood people in the areas where those two people lived would be concerned but asked they continue good hygiene practices and maintain social distancing while investigations continued.

Any passengers who disembarked from the Celebrity Solstice and the Ruby Princess in New Zealand have been asked to self-isolate.

The two cruise ships recently visited New Zealand and have now had confirmed cases of Covid-19 on board.

Alert level 2 means Covid-19 is "contained but risk of community transmission growing" and human contact must be further reduced.

On Saturday, over-70s were told to stay at home and Kiwis advised to limit domestic travel.

The Ministry of Health was on Saturday waiting for the test results of two possible cases of community transmission – unrelated to overseas travel - in Auckland and Wairarapa.

Flight details of today's confirmed cases:

66 Auckland 20s M Austria to Auckland via Doha arrived 17 March- flight EK448
65 Northland 40s F Melbourne to Auckland on Sunday 15 March – flight JQ217
64 Canterbury 50s F San Francisco to Auckland on Monday 16 March – flight NZ7
Auckland to Christchurch on Tuesday 17 March – flight NZ523
63 Taranaki 20s M Dubai to Auckland on Tuesday 17 March – flight EK448
Auckland to New Plymouth on 18 March – flight NZ8041
62 Taranaki 50s M Bangkok to Auckland on Sunday 15 March – flight TG0491
Auckland to New Plymouth on 16 March – flight NZ8041
61 Auckland 40s F Travel to Africa – details to come
60 Auckland 20s M Dubai to Auckland on Monday 16 March – flight EK448
59 Auckland 60s   No international travel history – exposed at World Herefords Conference in Queenstown.
58 Auckland 60s M No international travel history – exposed at World Herefords Conference in Queenstown. Domestic travel history:
Dunedin to Auckland on Sunday 15 March – flight NZ674
57 Hamilton 60s F Travel history to Ireland, Dubai and Australia. Details to come.
56 Bay of Plenty 30s M Travel history to the United States of America – details to come.
55 Coramandel 60s M Honolulu to Auckland on 14 March – flight HA445 (arrived 15 March)
54 Waikato 40s F Contact with a confirmed case
53: Otago (conflicting information on exact location)  40s M LA to Auckland on 14 March – flight NZ1 Auckland to Queenstown on 14 March – flight NZ615

An alert system is now in place for Covid-19 that can apply to the whole country, or to certain...
An alert system is now in place for Covid-19 that can apply to the whole country, or to certain places or towns. Photo: Supplied

 

Comments

Too late to close the gate now that the horse has bolted. Its clear from the backgrounds of the current cases that travellers are the spreaders, and it is inexcusable that domestic and international travel has not been better controlled. International travellers should have been held in airport hotels for 7 days as a form of quarantine rather than be allowed on to tightly packed domestic flights and to roam about the country spreading the virus. If the government could not manage kiwibuild how can they be expected to manage this. Close the airports. Restrict domestic travel, eg only allow essential movement across the small number of bridges over the Waitaki and Clutha rivers, so that outbreaks can be confined. With a high number of elderly in Dunedin and Otago/Southland generally along with exponential growth in cases its only a matter of time before the hospitals are overwhelmed.

You're right, the horse has indeed bolted. & days from now, we will be in VERY serious position if the lessons from Europe and US are anything to go by. Borders should have been closed 21 days ago. Population testing should have commenced 10 days ago. Last weekend we had 6 cases. We could have locked down and saved our domestic economy. The signals were there, but we followed the pack.....
So let's put a positive spin on this. We are a locked down country. TEST everyone as fast as we possibly can. People will jump at the chance to help. Manufacturers will jump at the chance to manufacture anything we need to implement this. We are a nation of inventors and doers. Sitting on our hands has never been an option. Come on Jacinda, let your people help. Until then, as you suggest in your comment Insight, close off provinces until the testing is done. This is moving too fast to consider any other action. Our hospitals simply could NOT take the loads. Bloomfield has stated this himself, so what are we waiting for?..........