Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield has revealed two new cases of Covid-19 and another death of a resident at Rosewood Rest Home today.
Another resident of the Rosewood Rest Home in Christchurch has passed away, Bloomfield says.
The woman had previous health conditions and was a much-loved member of the Rosewood family and had been there since 2011, he said.
A staff member was with her when she passed away.
Her death brings New Zealand's death toll from Covid-19 to 21, with 12 of those deaths linked to the Rosewood cluster.
She was considered a probable case of Covid-19. She died at the rest home and was not transferred to Burwood Hospital as was the case with some other patients part of the cluster centred there.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Bloomfield are speaking at today's update.
Two new cases
Dr Bloomfield said one of the cases was a student from Marist College after widespread testing was done before students return to school. They returned a "weak positive" and were likely not infectious.
The student had felt slightly unwell last month but the positive diagnosis was only picked up in a broader test of 250 people, Bloomfield said.
The late positive is not fully understood, he said. The student will remain in isolation and will be tested again next week.
The probable case is a household contact linked to the St Margaret's rest home cluster, Bloomfield said.
The two new cases bring the total since the pandemic began to 1488.
Only two people were now in hospital with Covid-19, down from four yesterday.
The low cases were encouraging, but Bloomfield repeated the message that we're not out of the woods.
"Do not give it an inch."
'No-one should give birth alone'
On the people who appeared before the Epidemic Response Committee this morning, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern recognised there was a need to address the harm caused by the lockdown.
Some of those stories didn't fit with her expectations - no one should have had to give birth alone, Ardern said.
"No one should go through that experience alone."
Microsoft investment in NZ
Ardern said Microsoft's announcement to build a data centre in New Zealand served as a signal to the world New Zealand was open for business.
Building on investment opportunities would be part of our recovery, Ardern said.
International companies like Microsoft wouldn't be looking to invest here if they weren't confident in our response to Covid-19, she said
It was also a vote of confidence in our digital future, she said.
The 21 APEC economies have agreed to work together to ensure continued trade and supply chains.
The update comes as it was was revealed yesterday for the second day in a row there were no new cases, but Bloomfield and Ardern have stressed now is not the time to be complacent and have reinforced the drop in cases shows the impact of level 4 restrictions.
In fact, the total number of probable and confirmed cases dropped by one yesterday to 1486 after a probable case was reclassified.
There were 184 active cases and four people are in hospital.
There were 3232 tests completed yesterday, with a combined total to date of 155,928.
Achieving zero cases two days in a row was testament to New Zealanders' efforts that "we can all be undeniably proud of", Ardern said.
But she urged Kiwis to double-down on their efforts to maintain the good run of numbers.
Earlier today Bloomfield appeared today before the Epidemic Response Committee where he was pressed on his comments that Covid-19 had been eliminated.
He clarified that by eliminated, he meant that level 4 had achieved what it needed to and elimination was "not a point in time".
When it comes to contact tracing, Bloomfield said new data shows more than 70 per cent of tests were tuned around within 24 hours.
He added that 80 per cent of confirmed cases had their contacts traced within 48 hours.
Asked why New Zealand is still at alert level 3, Bloomfield said that was a decision for Cabinet.
Pressed by committee chair Simon Bridges on this, Bloomfield told the National leader that it won't be until later this week before officials can tell if it is safe to move into level 2.
He said the virus has a two week incubation period, so two weeks at level 3 was apt.
"We're looking very carefully at what other countries are doing," he said.
That's countries that have managed the virus well, and those who haven't.
Bloomfield added that a careful step down period out of lockdown is what a lot of other successful countries have done.
He was challenged by Bridges on the fact that the all of Government communications team has ballooned during the pandemic.
But Bloomfield said it was important that the Government provided the best communications to the public during this time.
Bridges lashed out at Bloomfield, saying he wanted to "control the information flow".
This is because the Ministry of Health was not replying to the Epidemic Committee's written questions.
Bloomfield said he rejected the accusation he was attempting to control the information flow - but said he would endeavour to get the committee the information it needed.
Bloomfield said he had fronted up to media most days since the pandemic took hold.
Bloomfield reiterated that the economic impact of coming out of lockdown too soon would be much worse than a few more days of lockdown.
"The choice is quite stark."
He said the Government considered the impacts of the deferred surgeries.
He added that 80 per cent of urgent cancer surgery still went ahead during level 4.
Going into level 2 is also dependent on where cases came from.
It will be a red flag if cases start popping up that are not linked to existing cluster
