Covid 19 coronavirus: All bar one of Northland's 28 cases have recovered

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is to announce today when the country will move to Covid alert level 2.

Only one of Northland's 28 Covid-19 cases is yet to recover, with no new cases of the virus in the region for more than three weeks.

Yesterday the Government announced there are just two new cases of Covid-19 - continuing the trend of single-digit cases for the last two weeks ahead of today's big Cabinet decision on when to move to level 2.

Both yesterday's new cases were confirmed and there are still just two people in hospital across the country.

The Ministry of Health has also revealed there are no new Covid-19 related deaths.
The total amount of Covid-19 cases is 1494, made up of 1144 confirmed and 350 probable.

In Northland, there have been 28 Covid-19 cases, with no deaths, and all bar one have now recovered. The last Northland case was confirmed on April 16.

One of the confirmed cases yesterday is linked to the St Margaret's Hospital & Rest Home in Auckland.

The Ministry of Health said the individual is not a healthcare worker - they are a household contact of an earlier case linked to St Margaret's. They have been in self-isolation since that case was notified.

The second is a person who has travelled back from overseas, so is an imported case, the Ministry said.

The people in hospital are in Middlemore and North Shore hospitals - neither are in ICU.

Cabinet will decide today whether the country was ready to move to level 2, based on the advice of director general of health Ashley Bloomfield.

Bloomfield has said he would need the latest data before providing advice but, for the moment, the signs were good and there was still no indication of widespread community transmission.

Barring a spike in numbers today, a move to level 2 this week looks increasingly likely as New Zealand is still on course to eliminate Covid-19.

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

However, police are warning Kiwis not to flout the law after hordes took to beaches on Saturday despite the country still being at alert level 3.

The New Zealand situation - we have now just 103 active cases - contrasts with those in the US and UK. The number of global cases is set to hit 4 million today, and there have been 276,000 deaths.

In the UK, there have been 31,500 deaths, with lockdown continuing, and over-60s have been warned they might not be able to travel overseas for a year.