Nine new cases; southern death confirmed

There are nine new coronavirus cases in New Zealand today, and one new death - that of a man in Invercargill.

Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield made the announcement today, accompanied by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

The death brings the total toll to 12 and is of a man in Invercargill at home who was linked to the Bluff wedding cluster. It is believed to be the first coronavirus-related death not in hospital.

The man, in his 70s died in his Kingswell home on Tuesday evening. The Bluff wedding cluster has been connected to more than 90 cases, including the death of the groom's father.

Dr Bloomfield said it was important to get a good understanding of the death so a post-mortem was ordered - leading to the delay in confirmation that it was Covid-related.

The new cases are made up of four confirmed cases and five probable cases, and were recorded in Waitemata (5), Canterbury (3), and Waikato (1). 

They are all linked to confirmed cases.

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The total of confirmed and probable cases in New Zealand is now 1431.

There are 18 people in hospital, including three in ICU and two in a critical condition. One of these is in Dunedin Hospital.

There are no new cases in the Southern DHB area today, meaning the area's total number of cases remains at 216. It is still the highest in the country, followed by Waitemata (211) and Auckland (185).

There were 4146 tests processed yesterday, bringing the total of tests conducted to 83,224.

Source: Ministry of Health

Hunting for the source

Dr Bloomfield said there were only six recent cases where the source of infection was unknown - including one in Whanganui and one in Timaru.

Thorough tracing of contacts and workplaces were being undertaken by the public health units in those areas.

Targeted community testing had already been carried out in Timaru to gauge the prevalence of Covid-19 in that community.

Ongoing discussions were also taking place in Whanganui, where more testing was recently done in response to low per capita testing in that region.

Dr Bloomfield said a robust response was in place for a mental health staffer who had contracted Covid-19 at Tauranga Hospital.

He said he was confident in DHBs' infection prevention systems, but nothing was fail-safe.

Ms Ardern said that hospital resources had been managing so far.

There were 1601 people in managed isolation because of strict border controls, some of which were in strict quarantine.

Healthcare workers affected

The ministry said there were 131 healthcare workers who were confirmed or probable for COVID-19.  Forty-three had recovered.

The largest categories are nurses with 42 cases; care givers with 24 cases and 21 support functions roles.

Of our total cases 50% were infected in the workplace - either from colleagues, patients or residents.

Dr Bloomfield closed his remarks at today's update with a thank you to public health staff across the country. 

'This work is particularly critical to our ongoing ability to manage COVID-19 in New Zealand,' Dr Bloomfield said.