Covid 19 coronavirus: NZ 20 days with no new Covid-19 cases, rest home review released

A timeline of Covid-19 as the number of confirmed cases increases around the world.

New Zealand has gone 20 days with no new Covid-19 cases.

The Ministry of Health has released its 1pm update, during the country's third day at level 1 restrictions.

It also published the independent review of clusters in rest homes which was commissioned by Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield in April "so New Zealand would be better placed to manage any further occurrences", the ministry said.

The review examines in detail five clusters, as well as looking at a similar number of facilities which were largely unaffected.

It has confirmed that the infections were introduced to the facilities by staff or visitors. ESR data shows that three facilities experienced staff cases first.

It found personal protective equipment (PPE) wasn't available in some facilities and communications and support by health authorities was at times "confusing and not always clear or consistent".

"The key focus of both the reviewers and the ministry is to improve systems to prevent similar occurrences," the ministry said.

"Addressing faults in our systems reinforces the quality improvement focus used throughout health and disability services. No blame is being attributed to any staff involved.

"The ministry will be seeking feedback from aged care representatives, district health boards and public health units on feedback on the review recommendations over the next three weeks to inform a response and an agreed action plan for improvement."

The report includes a number of recommendations for improvements which the Ministry will be seeking sector feedback on.

Both the independent reviewers and the ministry acknowledged the work of staff and others involved in aged residential care to protect a vulnerable group of the New Zealand population, and in preventing and managing the cluster outbreaks.

The ministry also recognised the willingness of the sector to participate in the review and to put in place measures to limit further clusters or infections.

Figures unchanged

The total number of confirmed cases remains at 1154, the Ministry of Health said today in its daily Covid-19 update.

The total of confirmed and probable cases remains at 1504.

There are no deaths to report, nor is anyone in New Zealand receiving hospital-level care for Covid-19, a ministry spokeswoman said.

Nine significant clusters have now closed, with no change from yesterday.

The number of tests overall have reached a significant milestone, with 3350 yesterday taking the total to 301,882 - six per cent of the population.

Testing will continue to be a significant part of the response to, the ministry said.

Covid Tracer app

The NZ COVID Tracer has now recorded 546,000 registrations – an increase of 5,000 since this time yesterday.

The ministry encouraged the public to download and use the app to support contact tracing efforts in level 1.

The number of Covid-19 posters created by businesses is now 45,100. The total number of poster scans to date is 857,060.

Yesterday evening the ministry updated its Covid Tracer app to allow users to get a notification if they were at a venue with someone who later tested positive.

Users will also be able to send their digital diary to contact tracers if required and will have a vibrate mode so visually impaired people will know if a QR scan has worked.

The app will automatically update unless updates have been disabled on the users' phone.

Global deaths

The situation in New Zealand contrasts wildly with the rest of the world. The number of new daily cases of Covid-19 globally hit a record high on Sunday, the World Health Organisation said, with 7.2 million cases and 411,000 deaths globally - including almost 2 million cases in the US.

The UN agency warned the pandemic appeared to be worsening, and has urged countries that had seen improvement to remain vigilant.

"More than 100,000 cases have been reported on nine of the past 10 days," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a briefing this week. "Yesterday, more than 136,000 cases were reported – the most in a single day so far."

The WHO recently deemed South America the "new epicentre" for infections, with Brazil leading the continent in cases.

Brazil alone currently has the world's second-highest number of cases after the United States, with over 670,000 people infected since the pandemic began.

Ghost town

Despite the country moving to level 1 on Tuesday, which has removed restrictions on gathering numbers, inner city Auckland businesses have continued to struggle.

People have been slow to return to the city centre where retail spending is still down by 40 per cent.

It's suspected that's partially due to the lack of tourists and international students - and the fact many people still appear to be working from home.

NZTA says traffic levels are back to about 85 per cent of what they were pre-lockdown while Auckland Transport says public transport patronage is down by 60 per cent.