There are six new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand and one additional death. She was a woman in her 80s from the Rosewood rest home cluster in Christchurch.
The principal of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's former college has no regrets for taking on her Government's return to school policy - and has renewed his call for kids to stay home if they can.
In a lengthy letter to parents, Morrinsville College principal John Inger urged parentsto keep their kids home at alert level 3, warning that children could contact the virus, pass it on when asymptomatic, and could die.
In the newsletter, he warned of the "potential disaster" of sending children back to the school once alert level 4 lifts next week.
And he said some parents might be sending children back to school simply because they are a "pain in the neck" at home - and the Government was passing on child-minding duties to teachers.
His comments earned a rebuke from Ardern - one of Morrinsville College's most famous ex-pupils - at her daily press conference today.
In an interview with the Herald, Inger said his newsletter and stance shouldn't be read as him being critical of the Government's all-round handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, but he was unsure it had all the necessary information to make that decision.
"I think we're still learning about Covid-19. We know that kids all over the world can get the virus and can transmit the virus. For some of them, the outcomes are not good.
"The fact that social distancing under level 3 remains such an important part of the strategy to hopefully eradicate the disease - I'm not convinced that sending kids back to school is the best solution."
The president of the New Zealand Dental Association said the profession was in a "dire state" and that at least one person at least was in intensive care, suffering from life-threatening dental infections.
Meanwhile, the roll-out of the flu vaccine, has been branded a "total disaster" by the NZ Medical Association, as the Government's pause on the $22 million funding package sees GPs struggling to stay afloat.
Just six new cases of Covid-19 were announced today, but the death toll rose by one, after the death of a Christchurch woman in her 80s.
She was considered a probable case based on her exposure history and clinical symptoms.
Fourteen Kiwis have now died of the virus, with the latest death linked to the Rosewood rest home cluster from which seven others have died.
Inger's concerns added to a mounting backlash from teachers and some parents against Ardern's decision to reopen early childhood services and schools up to Year 10 to care for children whose parents have to return to work at alert level 3.
He said he's particularly concerned about two significant clusters of infection: the Marist College and the Matamata clusters, now the second and third largest in the country respectively.
Ninety-three cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in the Marist cluster, after it swept through the high school, and 76 cases have been linked to a St Patrick's Day celebration in Matamata.
"With Marist College being one of the biggest clusters in our country, I think it makes Bloomfield's assurance to the public that children won't get the virus and pass it on pretty hollow," Inger said.
John Inger - principal at Morrinsville college where Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern attended high school. Photo / Supplied
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield has said that children have lower infection rates and are not as contagious, and that new outbreaks in schools were unlikely, due to lack of community transmission.
That Morrinsville College was just a 30-minute drive away from Matamata, where the third-largest cluster of the virus in the country remains active, was also of "serious concern" to Inger.
"Ardern was clear that to eliminate the virus, a case will need to be tracked down carefully - I don't want that case to be my school and I don't want an epidemic in my community.
"I care very much for them, in some sections of the community, their health is very poor. It would be tragic, I think, if as a result of a case that someone died."
Ardern today quipped that Inger had her in mind, as an ex-student, when both her parents would have been classed as essential workers - her father was a police officer and her mother worked at the school.
With 32 of Inger's 80 staff members suffering from underlying health conditions or with immunocompromised people in their bubble, he has to protect his staff, he said.
As he would not ask those at risk to return to work, Inger warned parents that a "skeleton staff" would be working as the school reopens.
"I understand that there will be some parents who have to send their kids into school – many of them will not have other people in their bubble who can look after kids," he said.
"But it's not fair for me to ask our staff to provide in-house, as well as online learning effectively. This kids will be working on online work and it will largely be a supervised situation."
Inger said the College's Board of Trustees and his staff shared his concerns.
"We are doing very, well as a country in terms of fighting this virus, but we don't want a situation to develop where all of the hard work is undone and that's my concern."
