Dr Ashley Bloomfield says the 15 new cases are made up of six confirmed cases and nine probable cases. Twelve people are in hospital, three are in ICU and two are in a critical condition.
Funeral homes face strict protocols as they care for the bodies of people who died with Covid-19, with body bags and protective equipment among measures taken to stop the possible spread of the virus.
Advice from the Ministry of Health on the burial and cremation of people who died of infectious diseases has been updated to include Covid-19, which is classed as being of medium risk of infecting others after death.
People who have died of the virus must be placed in a body bag. The bereaved can technically attend a viewing, but the deceased person must remain in the unopened bag.
While it's safe for the person to be embalmed, particular care must be taken, and the process must be undertaken by a registered embalmer with a current practising certificate, the advice says.
Embalming - injecting chemical preservatives to slow decay - would destroy the Covid-19 virus, according to Gary Taylor, president of the Funeral Directors Association of NZ.
"We know embalming kills the virus, we don't know if refrigerating will and we don't know if freezing will."
The key for funeral home workers was to avoid coming into contact with fluid or droplets from the dead person, he said.
But the highest risk of infection came from the deceased's bubble mates attending the funeral - given those people would have been exposed to the virus.
"The possibility of contracting the virus from the deceased is still regarded as low ... But the issue still remains with the family of the deceased - it's more likely that they will be carriers than the deceased themselves."
NeedToKnow3
Taylor said funeral homes already operated with strict protocols.
"Directors need to abide by the rules around ensuring they wear appropriate PPE [personal protective equipment] and that transferring them to our care is conducted in the proper way."
Twelve people in New Zealand have died with Covid-19, up to today, Sunday April 19.
Christchurch's Bell, Lamb & Trotter is one of the funeral homes that have been involved with burial of a Covid-19 patient.
Funeral director Andrew Bell said the funeral home was treating every person as a possible Covid-19 case and using protective gear - "we have to, because people are sometimes non-symptomatic".
But a confirmed case came with an added layer of protection.
Bell, Lamb & Trotter offers livestreamed funerals but many families are not taking up the offer if nobody from the family can be there.
"They're just putting things off till later - if the person didn't die of Covid-19, we can still embalm them for a funeral later, or go ahead with the cremation or burial with the people in the bubble - then they'll have a memorial service later on when the restrictions are lifted," Bell said.
Embalming people who died with Covid-19 is safe because embalming kills the virus, Funeral Directors Association of NZ president Gary Taylor says. Photo / File
Gary Taylor guessed at least 80 per cent of people whose family members had died during the lockdown had opted for them to be buried or cremated immediately, with a memorial to be held at a later date.
Slightly relaxed lockdown rules now allow people to attend a funeral or visit the person's body if they had been in the deceased person's bubble, Bell said.
"But if they passed away at a rest home, they have no bubble - apart from a couple of cases where a husband and wife were living in the same rest homes.
"Even there they're advised not to leave their homes, or rest homes, because they're more vulnerable. I can see why there are these restrictions but it's incredibly difficult for people who are already in an incredibly difficult time," he said.
"Honestly I've found myself apologising a lot, for the restrictions that have been put on us but there's nothing we can do."
Most funeral homes had been split into teams working in shifts, so they wouldn't all be taken off work if someone caught the virus.
Funeral homes ready for influx of deaths
Having dealt with the Christchurch earthquake, Canterbury funeral homes are prepared for a possible, overwhelming influx of deaths, Bell said.
New Zealand appears to be on track to avoid such a scenario, thanks to the lockdown imposed in late March to stop the spread of the virus. Today just nine new confirmed or probable cases were recorded.
More people (912) have now recovered than there are active cases (519). Just 18 people are in hospital with Covid-19 - three in intensive care, two of them in a critical condition.
But the system is prepared for if things change - the number of funerals taking place in the country is being monitored twice a week, in concert with the Ministry of Health and the Department of Internal Affairs, FDANZ's Taylor said.
The Government's pandemic plan takes account of what would happen if the number of people dying from Covid-19 outstripped the funeral profession's ability to deal with the bodies in the normal way.
"In those circumstances they would likely be transported from their place of death in a body bag for immediate burial or cremation - purely from the point of view of trying to keep on top of the number of deaths."
The deceased may still come to the funeral home, or they could be taken to a central storage area and held until the funeral director picked them up for burial or cremation, Taylor said.
"At the moment the isolation bubbles the deceased was part of are allowed to come and view them and say cheerio - that would probably be missing from the system once we got to a point where the volume was too high."
If the country moves out of lockdown to alert level 3 - which could be as soon as next week - funeral services will be allowed to go ahead but will be limited to 10 people.
Taylor believed the public had been confronted by how important funerals were. "It enables us to understand the reality of death, provides support for the people who come along, allows us to have a safe place to express our emotions and probably contemplate how the future looks without Grandad or Dad in our lives anymore."
