Covid 19 coronavirus: Northland police message for rule breakers

Police are urging Northlanders to stay home after noticing an increase in people flouting lockdown rules recently.

While today at 4pm the country will find out if we remain at alert level 4 beyond 11.59pm on Wednesday, or if the country will move to level 3 instead, Northland police senior sergeant Mohammed Atiq reminded people they should be adhering to level 4 rules unless notified otherwise.

"A lot of the jobs coming in are of people breaching the level 4 lockdown rules. I think in the last couple of days more people have been not abiding by the rules. Our office is coming across people that are out and about and shouldn't be," he said.

"The country is still on level 4 lockdown so stay at home, until advised otherwise," he said.

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As of yesterday Northland's total number of Covid-19 cases remained at 27 - 25 confirmed and 2 probable cases - while nine new cases nationally were announced by Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield at yesterday's daily update.

Northland District Health Board confirmed 16 of the Northland cases were self-isolating in the community, and 10 had recovered.

Northland's latest case - a Māori man in his 70s - was in Whangārei Hospital in a stable condition as at 8am yesterday.

Northland medical officer of health Dr Catherine Jackson said on Friday the public health teams were following up all the man's possible contacts and after initial discussions it appeared his bubble was quite small.

She also said the man had observed the alert level 4 restrictions and would remain in isolation until he was no longer infectious.

Of Northland's cases, 17 are European, eight Māori and two listed as other.

Bloomfield said there were 18 people in hospital across the country including three in ICUs and two in a critical condition.

He also confirmed the death in Invercargill of a man at his home last week was from Covid-19. The death toll from Covid-19 in New Zealand is now 12.

All of yesterday's new cases were linked to confirmed cases and the total number of recovered cases is now 912.

In Northland, 2816 tests had been carried out to date across primary care, DHB hospitals and community-based testing centres - the latter conducting 2109 across seven sites.

Meanwhile, Bloomfield said 4146 tests were processed nationally on Saturday, bringing the total number of tests conducted to 83,224.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said cabinet was meeting at 10.30am today and a decision on whether New Zealand will come out of lockdown would be announced to the public at 4pm.

She said a move to level 3 would not be a return to pre-Covid 19 life, and the ongoing battle was a long-term one.

Returning to a normal social life would undo the good work done so far, she added.

"We are carving our own path, but I have confidence we'll make the right decision."

Criteria on which to base the decision to come out of lockdown included testing and contact tracing capacity, community transmission, border restrictions, and the capacity of the health system.

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website