The sudden death of a 40-year-old man with COVID-19, who was isolating at his home in Mangere has been referred to the Coroner to determine whether it was coronavirus-related.
Video / Alex Burton / Dean Purcell / Jason Oxenham / Michael Craig / Mark Mitchell
There are 139 Covid cases in the community today, with 64 people in hospital.
The ministry says there are 136 new cases in Auckland, two in Waikato and one in Northland.
The latest Northland case means there are now 15 people in the region with Covid.
The ministry said 27of 93 cases reported yesterday were infectious in the community and had associated exposure events. There were still 72 out of today's 139 cases to be epidemiologically linked.
The sudden death of a 40-year-old man with Covid-19 isolating at home has been referred to the Coroner who will determine whether it was coronavirus-related, officials confirmed.
"There has been speculation this death was vaccine-related but we can confirm it was not," this afternoon's Covid update said.
The Northern Region Health Coordination Centre and the ministry will review the public health and clinical oversight of the person, with independent input.
The ministry said it was unable to comment on the specifics of the case while a coronial investigation was under way, but following a positive test a public health assessment was undertaken on a case to determine whether they should isolate at home or in a facility.
This considered factors such as if they would like to and felt safe to isolate at home, if they had sufficient supplies and if they understood the isolation period for others in their house.
This was followed up with a medical assessment of their clinical needs and any medical conditions they might have. If people needed hospital-level care it was arranged for them, today's update said.
Over the period of required isolation there were regular checks through a mix of phone calls, in-person visits and emails. People with Covid-19 were also given a pulse oximeter to help monitor their health.
All infected people had access to a dedicated Healthline phone number and told to call 111 if they needed urgent medical attention, said the ministry.
Auckland health officials are supporting 723 people with Covid who are isolating at home.
Across New Zealand, there are 3569 contacts being managed by public health. Three-quarters of these people had received a call from contact tracers and had at least one swab.
New cases outside Auckland
The new community case in Northland is a close contact of the two previously reported Taipa cases and has been isolating at home, officials say.
The ministry urged anyone living in and around Taipa, Kaingaora, Awanui and Kaitaia who had symptoms in the past fortnight to get tested as soon as possible.
The two new cases from Hamilton have links with previous people who had the infection.
There are no new cases in Canterbury, with four people in quarantine.
The ministry urged those who received their first vaccination three weeks ago during the Super Saturday drive to get their second shot.
Text reminders and emails would be sent for everyone who was due a second dose following October's nation-wide "vaxathon".
It was also asking anyone else over 12 years who hadn't yet been vaccinated to get vaccinated.
Eden Park would be converted into a vaccination station this weekend with a #GotYaDot event running both days.
Yesterday there were 12,121 tests taken across Auckland. In Northland there were 1833 tests and 1552 vaccinations, with almost a third being first doses.
In the past 24 hours, labs have analysed 31,882 tests nationwide.
There are 24 people in North Shore Hospital, 25 in Auckland City Hospital, 15 in Middlemore Hospital and one in Waikato Hospital.
The average age of those needing hospital level care is 51.
'Other' category
Officials also moved to clarify the "other" category on the case management locations section on its website.
It said the majority of cases were there because their status had not yet been updated in the national diseases database, EpiSurv.
The vast majority had already been contacted and were under public health management and were not awaiting initial contact from public health officials.
The ministry said there were three new cases at the border.
One was from England who arrived on October 27 and tested positive on day 6 and two others who tested positive during routine day 1 swabs. It is not known which country they flew from. All are in Auckland managed isolation facilities.
The ministry said a person in MIQ who arrived from Tuvalu on October 20 had transited through Fiji before landing in Auckland.
They tested positive on day 11 of their stay in managed isolation.
Initial investigations determined there were no close contacts of this case among staff members or other returnees at the MIQ facility.
Further investigations were under way to ascertain the potential source, said the ministry.
Daily cases have not dropped below 100 since last Friday, with new cases detected in the community ballooning to 955.
The single worst day was on Monday, when a record-setting 162 cases were reported, just two days after the previous largest daily count that saw 160 people infected with Covid.
Yesterday, there were 100 new cases. All but three were in Auckland with the outstanding cases in Waikato where relaxed alert level settings come into force enabling shops to reopen.
Health officials yesterday said there were 58 people in hospital, including three people in ICU.
Yesterday, a West Auckland school closed after a student who had been in class this week tested positive for Covid-19.
Liston College confirmed a student tested positive for Covid-19 and was infectious at school on Monday.
The school's Board of Trustees has closed the school till Monday November 8.
Since senior students returned to school this term at least two other Auckland secondary schools have had to temporarily close after staff or students became infected with the virus.
This morning the director-general of health told The AM Show health officials had advised the Government that it was safe for primary children in alert level 3 regions to return to school in just over a week's time.
The Government yesterday also announced it had signed a purchase agreement for an additional 4.7 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
They would be available throughout next year and be used for children aged between 5 and 11 years and in a booster programme, among other things, Covid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins revealed.
