Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay said the number of Covid-19 cases stood at 1283 yesterday, with two deaths from the virus.
Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay said the number of Covid-19 cases stood at 1283 yesterday, with two deaths from the virus.
The number of coronavirus cases in Northland has risen by four as the nation suffers its second Covid-19 death.
Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay announced yesterday that a woman in her 90s succumbed to the virus in Christchurch on Thursday, bringing the nation's Covid-19 death toll to two.
McElnay said the number of cases in the country has increased by 44 - 23 confirmed cases and 21 probable - taking the national total to 1283. As of 9am yesterday 373 cases of Covid-19 had recovered.
Meanwhile there are now 24 cases in Northland - 22 confirmed cases and two probable cases - a rise of four cases in 24 hours, but two of the cases are not new and were previously categorised as being from Auckland.
There are currently no confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Northland hospitals, with 18 of the cases self-isolating in the community and six now fully recovered.
Six of the Northland cases are Māori and 18 non-Māori.
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Northland District Health Board said two of the new cases were close contacts of other confirmed cases and were in quarantine when they became unwell and were tested. The DHB was expecting these two to come back positive.
The other two included in the Northland total were cases previously reported in the Auckland region. These people are not new cases, they ordinarily reside in the Northland boundary and hence have been transferred to NDHB to manage until fully recovered.
McElnay said the country's second death linked to Covid-19 was a woman in her 90s in Christchurch who was one of the residents from Rosewood rest home moved earlier in the week to hospital.
McElnay said as we'd seen around the world, Covid-19 could be fatal for elderly people with underlying health conditions.
The woman had a number of age-related health conditions and because of level 4, her family weren't able to visit her or be with her before she passed away in hospital.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the sacrifices Kiwis had made in the past two weeks to try to break the chain of Covid 19 were "huge".
"In the face of the greatest threat to human health we have seen in over a century, Kiwis have quietly and collectively implemented a nationwide wall of defence,'' she said on Thursday.
"We are turning a corner. But to succeed, we need it to keep working."
Ardern also announced that all people arriving in to New Zealand would be put into forced isolation or quarantine. She said Cabinet will make a decision on a possible move out of alert level 4 on April 20 - two days before it is due to be lifted.
Meanwhile, Northland's Covid-19 testing stations, apart from the one in Rawene, are open over the Easter weekend for those who need to be tested.
