Covid 19 coronavirus: New Zealanders should 'take heart' in declining case numbers but grave fears remain for a group of dementia patients

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New Zealanders should take heart the collective efforts to stamp out Covid-19 "are paying dividends", with cases numbers continuing to fall, says the Director-General of health.

But Ashley Bloomfield warned more could die from a group of dementia patients in a rest home that has had a Covid-19 outbreak. The warning comes as the death toll in the United States passes 20,000, eclipsing Italy's toll - and more than than 10,000 people have now died in Britain. Globally more than 100,000 people have died.

And a comedian best known for his role in TV comedy The Goodies has died after contracting coronavirus as global infections pass 1.7 million

UK Comedian Tim Brooke-Taylor, best known as part of 1970s comic trio The Goodies alongside Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie, died on Sunday morning (UKT). He is survived by his wife, Christine.

About 1,765,000 cases of coronavirus have now been confirmed across 185 countries and more than 108,000 people have died.

In New Zealand, three of the 13 clusters are from aged-care facilities, home to New Zealanders most vulnerable to the virus.

The other clusters are at the George Manning rest home in Christchurch which has 15 cases and the Atawhai Assisi Rest Home in the Waikato which has 14. The source of the infections at each facility is still being investigated.

Bloomfield has told district health boards to make sure aged-care facilities' practices and procedures were "watertight" to protect residents and staff.

"We have found there were some deficiencies in the actual procedures and how those were being implemented and we want to make sure that every facility has really good plans and procedures, has access to PPE [personal protective equipment] and knows how to use it."

Staff should stay home if they're sick or had come into contact with a Covid-19 case, Bloomfield said.

The aged-care sector is calling for more testing at rest homes to protect the lives of New Zealand's most vulnerable.

Yesterday just 18 new Covid-19 cases were reported - the lowest daily total in three weeks - bringing the total to 1330 cases, with 471 people recovered.

The death toll remained at four.

Nationwide, 14 people remain in hospital - five in intensive care units, with one in a critical condition in Dunedin.

Bloomfield hoped the downward trend would continue over the next few days as testing ramped back up.

"It's encouraging that we're seeing a smaller number of cases and I think all New Zealanders should take heart that our collective efforts are paying dividends."

Two of New Zealand's four Covid-19 fatalities - a 90-year-old woman and a man in his 70s - were among a group moved from Rosewood Rest Home to Burwood Hospital last week and fears remain for 18 other dementia patients from the home.

They have Covid-19, or have symptoms, and are all isolated from each other at Burwood Hospital.

"These are people who are older, they are frail, they have high-care needs and there are a number of them with a Covid-19 infection and we may well see further deaths over coming days, just to be honest with you about that," Bloomfield said.

A man in his 80s who died in Wellington Public Hospital on Friday was connected to the Bluff wedding cluster.

Over the weekend, some members of the technical advisory group met to analyse testing data to see which regions needed to increase their testing rates to ensure infections weren't being missed.

Bloomfield said he wanted to see testing ramped up again this week and texted the chief executive of the Whanganui DHB at the weekend to ask them to be "more liberal".

Whanganui has the lowest testing rate in the country with just 3.8 per 1000 people compared with Wairarapa, the highest on 16.3 tests per 1000 people.

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But there wouldn't be mandatory testing of anyone moving into rest homes, which the Aged Care Association has called for.

On average, 700 people move to aged-care facilities each week and all have to self-isolate. People are only tested if they're symptomatic.

Association chief executive Simon Wallace wants everyone tested so if they're positive, they wouldn't be admitted.

"We're taking a very responsible position in that this is the most vulnerable group of people - they are the most susceptible to Covid-19.

"If we have the capacity to do 5000 tests a day, it wouldn't be that many tests for the most vulnerable cohort of our population," Wallace told the Herald.

He wrote to Bloomfield last week asking for mandatory testing but his proposal was rejected as testing people who weren't symptomatic didn't fit the case definition.

Meanwhile, the circumstances around the Auckland "private party" cluster of 35 cases remained a mystery. Bloomfield said the event was "well-bounded" and everyone involved had been contacted.

A cluster identified at a Spectrum facility caring for the intellectually disabled now had 28 cases.

The infection originated in the community and then spread to Spectrum Care. Five cases are directly related to the care facility, and the others are in households.

In terms of lockdown compliance, Bloomfield said there had been 847 breaches and 109 prosecutions.

Still get healthcare if you're sick

A drop in emergency department admissions and calls to Healthline from people with very serious symptoms has caused concern.

Bloomfield urged anyone who was unwell, regardless of whether it was related to Covid-19, to still seek healthcare.

Wait-times at Healthline were now less than 10 seconds and GPs and hospitals had very strict procedures in place to make sure patients didn't come into contact with the virus, he said.

If it's an emergency, call an ambulance.

"Don't leave it too long to seek help. If you need medical attention for any health concern please seek help promptly," Bloomfield said.

Healthline's normal number is 0800 611 116