Covid-19: MidCentral Health area now has 11 confirmed cases

The number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Horowhenua is now five, and within the MidCentral DHB district that number is 11. There are two probable cases.

There is one new confirmed case and one new probable case today. One person has been hospitalised for Covid-19 in the MidCentral district. Two of the cases have recovered.

MidCentral Covid-19 cases
· 11 confirmed cases
· 2 probable cases
· 2 recoveries
· 1 in hospital

Locations:
· Palmerston North 3
· Manawatū 4
· Horowhenua 5
· Tararua 1
· Ōtaki 0

For more information about MidCentral DHB's response to the Covid-19 pandemic, please visit Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) page.

The Technical Advisory Group met yesterday and are today issuing a new case definition.

The Case Definition is a guide for health professionals on testing, but also continues to accommodate their clinical judgement in determining testing.

The new case definition is now that anyone with respiratory symptoms consistent with COVID-19 should be considered for testing regardless of travel history or contact with a confirmed case.

This will result in more testing being done which we are also prepared for. Testing capacity is currently 3,700 tests daily, and we are currently doing an average of 1843 tests per day based on the last seven days.

We are increasing capacity to test – currently we have 8 laboratories and by the end of next week that will be ten, with laboratories in Auckland and Tauranga coming on stream and increasing our capacity to more than 4000 tests per day.

For further information on Covid-19 and the number of current cases in New Zealand please visit covid19.govt.nz/

The level of information provided about specific cases has been decided by the Medical Officer of Health and the Chief Medical Officer, with respect to aligning patients' right to privacy alongside the public interest in Covid-19.