Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield earlier in the day announced there were four more deaths linked to Covid-19 in NZ over the past 24 hours, including three people from the Rosewood rest home cluster in Christchurch.
One man in his 70s has died in Wellington - a case linked to overseas travel - and three from the Rosewood rest home cluster died at Burwood Hospital, including two men in their 90s and a man in his 80s.
They were all confirmed cases of Covid-19 and had underlying health conditions, Bloomfield said.
The total number of Covid-19 cases in the Canterbury District Health Board area has grown by three in the last 24 hours, with the region's total now standing at 139.
During Tuesday's update, Bloomfield revealed there are 17 new cases of Covid-19 nationwide over the past 24 hours, made up of eight new confirmed cases and nine new probable cases.The CDHB area continues to have the fifth-highest number of cases behind the Southern, Waitemata, Auckland and Waikato DHB areas.
South Canterbury now has 12 Covid-19 cases, one more than yesterday.
There are also three clusters of Covid-19 cases in Christchurch, including 34 confirmed and probable cases from the Rosewood Rest Home & Hospital in Linwood and 16 confirmed and probable cases from George Manning Lifecare & Village in Spreydon. The number of confirmed and probable cases from the Christchurch compost company Living Earth has increased from eight to 10, including four staff members.
Bloomfield said the Rosewood cluster would continue to be at risk, but that didn't make the additional deaths any less sad.
The Covid-19 death toll is now nine, including six from the Rosewood cluster.
Bloomfield said he had lost his two parents and knew how hard it would be to have access to loved ones denied, and the blanket ban on visiting people infected with Covid-19 was being reviewed.
The processes around the six aged-care residential facilities and rest homes where Covid-19 has been detected, including how visits were allowed, were also being reviewed to learn any relevant lessons.
He said a third of deaths each year happened in palliative care, and the residents in Burwood are receiving the same treatment as they would have in Rosewood.
Bloomfield rejected the suggestion that patients at Burwood Hospital - who were moved from Rosewood when the rest home got a coronavirus case - had been essentially left to die.
The residents in Burwood are receiving the same treatment as they would have in Rosewood, he added.
The two new fatalities in Burwood were not treated in ICU, and he said that would have been a decision made by those families in conjunction with health experts.
He relayed some feedback from a Rosewood family, who praised the staff there and were thankful to have Skype contact with their loved one.
"We know that aged residential care and settings are very vulnerable if we get Covid-19 in those facilities," Bloomfield said.
Working closely with those facilities and acting quickly and preemptively was vital, he added.
There were 650 such facilities nationwide, and the relatively low number of cases in those facilities was an indication of the care and preparation measures across the sector, including "no visitor" policies before the lockdown was implemented.
Every new arrival goes into isolation for 14 days, Bloomfield said, and there are no shared meals.
He said there was a "low threshold" for testing in those facilities, but he has not taken up the call from the sector to test every new arrival - about 700 every day.
Bloomfield said more actions were being looked at and more funding for the sector would be announced later this week.
"We continue to work with them to ensure we are maximising the value of testing."
Summary
| Total to date | New in last 24 hours | |
|---|---|---|
| Number of confirmed cases in New Zealand | 1,072 | 8 |
| Number of probable cases | 294 | 9 |
| Number of confirmed and probable cases | 1,366 | 17 |
| Number of cases in hospital | 15 | 0 |
| Number of recovered cases | 628 | 82 |
| Number of deaths | 9 | 4 |
Note: The number of confirmed and probable cases reported in the last 24 hours includes cases which were entered on an earlier date as 'under investigation' or 'suspected' whose status has now been changed to confirmed or probable.
View details of confirmed and probable cases.
View details of significant COVID-19 clusters.
View interactive map and dashboard.
Total cases by DHB
As at 9.00 am, 14 April 2020
| DHB | Number of cases | Change in last 24 hours |
|---|---|---|
| Auckland | 180 | 4 |
| Bay of Plenty | 41 | 0 |
| Canterbury | 139 | 3 |
| Capital and Coast | 88 | 0 |
| Counties Manukau | 103 | 2 |
| Hawke's Bay | 41 | 0 |
| Hutt Valley | 20 | -2 |
| Lakes | 16 | 0 |
| MidCentral | 28 | 0 |
| Nelson Marlborough | 48 | 0 |
| Northland | 26 | 1 |
| South Canterbury | 12 | 1 |
| Southern | 210 | 1 |
| Tairāwhiti | 3 | 2 |
| Taranaki | 14 | 0 |
| Waikato | 177 | 0 |
| Wairarapa | 8 | 0 |
| Waitemata | 200 | 5 |
| West Coast | 5 | 0 |
| Whanganui | 7 | 0 |
| Total | 1,366 | 17 |
Total cases in hospital by DHB
| DHB | Total cases |
|---|---|
| Auckland | 4 |
| Canterbury | 1 |
| Counties Manukau (Middlemore) | 1 |
| Nelson Marlborough | 1 |
| South Canterbury | 1 |
| Southern | 1 |
| Waikato | 4 |
| Waitemata | 2 |
| Total | 15 |
Note:Three of the 15 in hospital are in ICU as at 8.30 am 14 April 2020.
Coming out of lockdown
He said the ministry would provide "robust" advice to Cabinet for its decision on Monday on whether to lift the lockdown, and he was awaiting more information on contact-tracing before Monday.
Earlier today top epidemiologist Sir David Skegg said Cabinet would be playing "Russian roulette" with New Zealanders' lives if it made its decision before improving contact-tracing and before surveillance testing had been widely undertaken.
Australia was now able to do all necessary contact-tracing for new cases within two to three days, but Bloomfield had told the committee he was awaiting further details before he could say how long the process took in New Zealand.
He later told media at a press conference that the Health Ministry could already contact-trace within two to three days of any new case, but he wanted that capacity to be reached for a higher volume of cases.
There were 220 staff available to contact-trace, and about 100 cases could be traced per day. The number of new cases everyday was also shrinking, and the number of close contacts per case was about four to five, he said.
Aged care review launched
A review of aged residential care facilities that had been infected would also be conducted, he said.
"My hope is to do this in conjunction with the Aged Care Association."
"We know that aged residential care and settings are very vulnerable if we get Covid-19 in those facilities," Bloomfield said.
Working closely with those facilities and acting quickly and preemptively was vital, he added.
There were 650 such facilities nationwide, and the relatively low number of cases in those facilities was an indication of the care and preparation measures across the sector, including "no visitor" policies before the lockdown was implemented.
Every new arrival goes into isolation for 14 days, Bloomfield said, and there are no shared meals.
He said there was a "low threshold" for testing in those facilities, but he has not taken up the call from the sector to test every new arrival - about 700 every day.
Bloomfield said more actions were being looked at and more funding for the sector would be announced later this week.
"We continue to work with them to ensure we are maximising the value of testing."
He would not name the latest rest home in Auckland where there was now a cluster, but he added half of the cases were in the rest home and half were in the community. It was unclear at the moment where the index case was.
Testing rates
Yesterday there were 1572 tests conducted, and the seven-day rolling average of tests is 3039.
There were expected to be a lower number of tests over the Easter break.
There had been a lower number of tests in Australia too, Bloomfield said, but he added that a low threshold for testing anyone with respiratory symptoms would stay in place.
The testing data showed that more testing was needed in Whanganui and Tai Rawhiti, Bloomfield said, but overall there was good regional spread of testing.
Asked about a nurse at Burwood working without hair protection or foot covers, Bloomfield said he couldn't comment on the specifics of that case.
But he added that the workers there should have access to all the PPE they needed.
There were 220 staff available to contact-trace, and about 100 cases could be traced per day. The number of new cases everyday was also shrinking, and the number of close contacts per case was about four to five, he said.
The use of an app to enhance contact-tracing would only help if there was 80 per cent voluntary take up of the app, he said.
