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An Invercargill woman with Covid-19 who has been fighting for her life in Dunedin Hospital for two weeks has died.
The Otago Daily Times was told the woman died overnight.
She is the second person from Invercargill to die of Covid-19.
Alister Peter Brookland, in his 70s, known as Barney,died on Tuesday last week in his Kingswell home.
The 62-year-old woman was placed in intensive care on a ventilator in Dunedin Hospital after the virus took over her lungs, RNZ reported earlier today.
The woman's daughter Nicole earlier told RNZ her family was worried the seriousness of her condition is being downplayed publicly.
She said her father and four other family members - including a toddler and a baby - had also caught Covid-19.
"Mum was isolated in the family home for a week after first getting flu-like symptoms. Food was left at her door, no one could hug her. When she was taken to the hospital, no one could hug her goodbye," she said.
She said the family still did not know how they had contracted Covid-19.
The family is believed to be among the rare cases of community transmission.
The woman who died was initially in Southland Hospital but was airlifted to Dunedin on April 4 after her condition deteriorated.
"When Mum was in Southland Hospital, the nurses ensured her phone was charged so that we could communicate with her and I will be eternally grateful for that," Nicole said.
"But obviously since she was sedated and intubated [two weeks ago], we haven't been able to communicate with her, and our only contact is through the medical staff caring for her."
The description of her condition in the government media conference this week upset the family.
On Tuesday, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said none of the patients in hospital were critical; yesterday he said they were stable.
Nicole was initially elated when she heard the briefing on Tuesday and thought her mother's condition must have changed since they had spoken to doctors that morning.
"I rang my dad to see if he had received a further update from the hospital, he hadn't. I rang the hospital and they confirmed she was still critical. This was a little heartbreaking," she said.
It made her question the accuracy of the information in the press conferences.
She worried people would not understand how serious the situation was.
The Ministry of Health said the medical terminology it used for "stable" meant there had been no change in a patient's condition.
The fact the person was in intensive care denoted the seriousness of their condition, it said in a statement.
A Southern District Health Board spokeswoman said yesterday the woman had been in ICU for two weeks.
Her condition was yesterday described as stable but critical.
Community transmission - where the source of infection is unknown - accounts for just 4 per cent of Covid-19 cases, while 2 per cent are still being investigated, the Ministry of Health says.
Southland has had some of the highest rates of Covid-19 and two of the largest clusters.
Including the Invercargill woman, who Stuff reported died on Wednesday evening, New Zealand has now had 15 Covid-19-related deaths.
Six new confirmed cases were reported yesterday, bringing the total to 1451 confirmed and probable cases across the country. Of those, 1036 are classed as recovered by the Ministry of Health.
