The number of Covid-19 cases in the Canterbury District Health Board area has risen by three in the last 24 hours, now standing at a total of 158.
There have been 94 people from this area who have recovered. Eight people are in hospital, with one in ICU across the country.
There were just three new cases announced nationwide today, made up of two confirmed cases and one probable case. This is the smallest daily total so far.
The deaths take the country's total to 16. The number of people who had recovered was 1065.
There are 16 cases in the South Canterbury District Health Board area, no change since yesterday.
There were two new deaths announced today.
One of the deaths was a resident of Rosewood rest home in Christchurch, a man in his 70s. There are now nine deaths associated with this cluster.
The man died in the hospital wing of Rosewood, and had not been transferred to Burwood Hospital.
He had an underlying health condition, and while he had tested negative for Covid-19, he was treated as a probable case, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said.
The other death was Invercargill woman Jocelyn Finlayson, who had been fighting for her life in Dunedin Hospital for two weeks and died overnight.
Her death was confirmed to the Otago Daily Times by her son Will Finlayson, also of Invercargill, this morning.
Mrs Finlayson (62) last left her home on March 17 before going into lockdown with her family in Invercargill.
The family was unsure of how she contracted the virus, Mr Finlayson said.
Dr Bloomfield announced the deaths and new cases today, and said arrangements were made for Mrs Finlayson's family to be with her last night as she passed away.
Dr Bloomfield apologised to the family after confusion over her status in hospital.
The new cases comprise two confirmed and one probable case, but the number of total cases remains unchanged at 1451, as three cases announced yesterday were associated with the cruise ship Greg Mortimer and may have been reported first in Uruguay, Dr Bloomfield said.
In a statement this afternoon the Ministry of Health said those three cases had been reclassified as under investigation.
"They are laboratory confirmed cases of COVID-19, but they were possibly already counted in Uruguay’s case total. They have been deducted from our total while this is confirmed, to prevent double counting of the cases by the World Health Organisation."
There are eight people in hospital with Covid-19, one is in ICU in Middlemore Hospital.
The number of significant clusters remains at 16, and there are four additional cases linked to those clusters.
The ministry said laboratories processed another record number of tests yesterday - 6480 - and had now processed 101,277 tests in total.
GPs open
Making today's announcement with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Dr Bloomfield confirmed GPs will be open when the country moves to Alert Level 3.
He said dentists will be able to to preform urgent surgeries under Level 3.
Meanwhile, the ministry was doing a stocktake of PPE, and how it's being rolled out across the country.
Hunting allowed
On hunting, Ms Ardern said in many parts of the country this is an important part of providing food for families.
She reiterated that hunting is allowed under level 3, if it's on private land.
"Hunting is an important part of many New Zealanders' lives," she said.
Duck hunting season has been pushed out for a couple of weeks.
"I know this will be disappointing for many," she said.
However it's important that people keep their social distancing.
- Matt Slaughter/ODT Online/NZ Herald/RNZ
