There is one more death and five new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand. The person who died was a woman in her 90s at St Margaret's hospital. She was the 19th person to die from coronavirus-related causes in New Zealand.
Another elderly person has lost their life to Covid-19 in New Zealand, lifting the country's toll to 19.
The woman was in her 90s and had been a resident of St Margaret's Rest Home in Auckland - she is the third person in that cluster to die.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield during the All of Government Covid-19 update media conference. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The death wasannounced at today's media briefing where it was noted she had a number of underlying health conditions.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said it was worth pausing to digest the numbers, including the transmission rate and new cases staying in the single-digit range.
This was thanks to the sacrifices New Zealanders made. Without lockdown there could have been as many as a thousand cases per day, she said.
"We can look overseas and see that this devastating scenario has played out in many other countries," she said.
"Through our cumulative actions we have avoided the worst.
"Tragically, what we have been unable to stop is the loss of 19 New Zealanders to Covid-19.
"Numbers of course mean nothing to their family and loved ones, and nothing can take away their grief. All I can do or say again to those people is that our thoughts and sympathies are with you.
"We send them our love in their time of loss. As we do to anyone who has lost someone during lockdown and may have been unable to be with them or to farewell them as they would have wished.
"This has been one of, I think, the hardest elements of level 4."
The shared ambition was to bring back social contact that everyone missed, she said.
"But to do it confidently we need to move slowly and we need to move cautiously.
"We must make sure that we do not let the virus run away on us again and cause a new wave of cases and deaths.
Jacinda Ardern is pleased with the efforts of the team of five million. Photo / Mark Mitchell
"We must hunt down the last few cases ... this is like looking for a needle in a haystack."
Ardern said alert level 3 "will not be a return to pre-Covid life."
She called on the "team of five million" to make sure the country does not have a second wave.
Ardern said in order to make a move to alert level 2 in two weeks, there will need to be a confidence that there is no community transmission.
"We can only do this if we continue to pull together."
"If we need to stay at level 3 [for longer] we will."
Waitematā DHB released a statement following the latest death.
"The thoughts and prayers of Waitematā DHB's staff and management are with the patient's family and friends at this difficult time. We are all saddened by their loss and ask that the family's privacy is respected as they mourn the passing of their loved one."
