The new cases, any further deaths and how many people have recovered were released in a written statement instead of the usual press conference from the Beehive.
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Ahead of the written statement being released the Ministry of Health updated its website saying there had been nine new cases, made of seven confirmed and two probable.
For the second day in a row there were no new cases in the South, leaving the total of confirmed and probable cases in the Southern District Health Board area at 216.
In a statement the Ministry said there were no additional deaths to report and the total number of Covid-19 related deaths remained at 12.
Four of the cases reported today will continue to be investigated for links to confirmed cases.
The new combined total of confirmed and probable cases in New Zealand is 1440.
There were now 974 people with Covid-19 who have recovered – an increase of 62 on yesterday.
Today there are 14 people in hospital with Covid-19. The total includes three people in ICU – one each in Middlemore, Dunedin and North Shore hospitals.
Two of these ICU patients are in a critical condition.
There were still 16 significant clusters – no change from yesterday. One additional case has been added to one of these clusters.
Yesterday 3081 COVID-19 tests were processed. The rolling 7-day average was 3354, and 86,305 total tests have been processed to date.
Over the weekend, there were a number of efforts around wider community testing by public health and primary care.
Waitemata DHB had test sites at two supermarket locations in Mangere and Henderson on Saturday. Over 400 samples were taken and have now come back with negative results.
"As we have noted previously, this is similar to the results from previous testing in Queenstown and in locations across the Waikato."
"Targeted community testing continues to be part of our ongoing surveillance against COVID-19, which helps provide us with assurance that there is not undetected community transmission."
Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield will join Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for the post-Cabinet press conference at 4pm when it will be revealed if and when New Zealand will move to alert level 3.
Yesterday there was also nine new cases, the second time the daily tally was in single-digits since before the lockdown.
New Zealand will find out this afternoon at 4pm whether the country will come out of lockdown and move to alert level 3.
The Cabinet started meeting at 10.30am and will base its decision on testing and contact tracing capacity, community transmission, border restrictions, and the capacity of the health system.
When asked yesterday if we were likely to stay in level 4 for another week until contact tracing is at a gold standard, Arden said: "We are not going to get into hypotheticals."
The death brings the total toll to 12 and was of a man in Invercargill who was linked to the Bluff wedding cluster. It is the first coronavirus death in the community.
The man, aged in his 70s, died in his Kingswell home on Tuesday evening. The Bluff wedding cluster has been connected to more than 90 cases, including the death of the groom's father.
The total of confirmed and probable cases in New Zealand was now 1431, and 912 people had recovered.
There were 18 people in hospital, including one each in ICU at Middlemore, Dunedin and North Shore hospitals; two were in a critical condition.
ODT and NZ Herald
