Government confirms 82 new cases of Covid-19


There are 82 new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand - 52 confirmed and 30 probable, bringing the total to 950, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says.

The updated figures made public on Saturday afternoon include 19 new cases in the South.

 

Dr Bloomfield was briefing media along with Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay this afternoon.

There are 10 people in hospital around the country and one in ICU at Wellington Regional Hospital, while 127 people have now recovered.

Bloomfield said he would provide advice to Cabinet this week as to whether the lockdown should be extended.

He said there has been a "flattening off" of new cases but he would like to see another two or three days of lower new cases numbers to be confident of that.

"It may well be it [Covid-19] has peaked now. The number of cases does seem to be levelling off."

Map showing number of cases by DHB - see data table following.

Bloomfield said during the past week there had been a high level of lockdown compliance across the country, but a new notice will be provided to let people know what an acceptable bubble is.

He said there were still some people not following the Government's guidance and the new public health notice will clarify police powers.

It will provide the public and the police with more clarity, he said.

Asked if he was confident police had enough power, Bloomfield the new guidance was quite clear. "Yes, I do think police have enough powers."

• Watch full media briefing here:

Dr Bloomfield said Friday was highest single day of testing at 3631, bringing the total number of tests to 33,116. There is now testing capacity for 6000 per day.

There remains a strong link to to overseas travel, but 17% of cases are still being investigated for community transmission, he said.

The three biggest clusters are Marist College in Auckland with 60 cases, Bluff with 55 cases and Matamata with 54 cases.

Fever is no longer a requirement to be tested for Covid-19. Testing is now available for people with respiratory problems, regardless of contact with overseas travel.

Director of Public Health Caroline McElnay said there has been no change to the Government's recovery condition - when 10 days have passed since the onset of symptoms and 48 hours after a person is symptom-free.

The Government is watching advice from the World Health Organisation for people being required to wear masks when they are out and about.

She said there are areas where wearing a mask is unhelpful - for example, sometimes it leads to people touching their face more, she said.

The wait time for Healthline was an average of five minutes and the service received 14,700 calls on Friday.

New Zealand is now in its ninth day of Level 4 alert which is a full lockdown that will last for at least four weeks, with only essential services operating.

The Government is encouraging people to stay at home and if they do go out for exercise or to shop to keep their distance from others.

- RNZ  and NZ Herald 

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