New Zealand has 54 new coronavirus cases today. The new cases are made up of 32 confirmed cases and 22 probable cases. It brings the total number of cases to 1160.
More people have recovered from coronavirus in the last 24 hours than tested positive and an upbeat health boss Ashley Bloomfield says New Zealand can be "increasingly confident" about its lockdown response.
But almost 300 people have breached lockdown laws, the Director-General Health revealed at his daily press conference, with 16 prosecutions, 263 warnings and other cases referred to youth aid.
Those cases don't include the Health Minister David Clark, who has twice breached the rules - once for a 20km drive with his family to the beach and again when he drove to a park to go mountain biking.
Bloomfield announced 54 new coronavirus cases today - 32 confirmed cases and 22 probable cases. It brings the total number of New Zealand cases to 1160 since the pandemic began.
With 241 people now considered recovered, this is 65 people more than a day ago. In other words, 54 new cases today, and 65 recoveries.
Ardern demoted him to the bottom of Cabinet this morning.
"He broke the rules, and he needs to pay a price."
But she said removing Clark as the Minister was "not in the best interests for New Zealanders".
The Government could not afford massive disruption to the healthcare system at this time. "Nothing else matters at this time," she said of the fight against Covid-19.
Clark this morning admitted to a 40km round trip to the beach with his family during the first week of the lockdown – something that was specifically advised against by the Ministry he leads.
This comes after he was forced to admit a 2.3-kilometre drive to a mountain bike trail last week.
Ardern said it was a "massive mistake".
She said she was not interested in Clark's excuses - "not that he offered any".
"He has had to pay a personal price for this, but I'm determined that the health system will not."
Questioned further, she said: "You will hear no defence, no excuse".
Bloomfield expected the number of new cases to "continue to stay level" before a decline.
He said there were an additional five people with Covid-19 in the Marist College clusters. In fact, he said just under half of the new cases were coming from clusters.
The number of people coming to New Zealand from overseas with Covid-19 has also been dropping.
The most affected age group is the 20-29 age bracket - 286 people with Covid-19 are in this group.
Bloomfield said the World Health Organisation was not advising people to wear masks outside, unless they were sick or looking after someone who was sick.
He was upbeat on the number of nasal swabs in New Zealand, saying there are plenty that can be distributed across the country.
When it came to people with work visas who have lost their jobs, Ardern said this was an "ongoing discussion" with Government ministers.
Ardern said her message to those in the healthcare system was that it shouldn't take a pandemic to remind Kiwis how important healthcare staff are.
NZ's borders still a risk
On New Zealand's borders, she said the Government saw it as an "ongoing" area of risk. The Government was doing all it could to strengthen that, she said.
She said border restrictions must be "watertight".
She indicated the Government would "ramp those up" and will be making more announcements about that "shortly".
Bloomfield said he was providing "active advice" to Cabinet about what should be happening at the borders.
Speaking to Kiwis who might want to go away over the Easter break, Ardern made a familiar refrain: "Stay home."
Bloomfield called on people to have a "staycation" over the break.
More than 1 million Kiwis get wage subsidy, $6.6b paid out
The Government's wage subsidy to protect jobs and keep workers and businesses connected during the lockdown has now supported over a million New Zealanders, with $6.6 billion already paid out.
