Invercargill death linked to Bluff wedding cluster

An Invercargill man whose death is being investigated to see if he is the first New Zealander to die at home from Covid-19 has links to the Bluff wedding cluster of cases of the pandemic disease.
The man, in his 70s died in his Kingswell home on Tuesday evening.

The man was undergoing a post-mortem this afternoon.

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Until those results were available, director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield would not say if his death would be added to the national total of nine Covid-19 deaths.

When asked if the man had links to the Bluff cluster, Dr Bloomfield said: "Yes, it is linked to the Bluff wedding; not directly, but indirectly.''

The Buff wedding cluster was connected to three more Covid-19 cases yesterday; it has been connected to 92 cases overall, including the death of a man in Wellington.

No new cases of Covid-19 were reported in the southern region.