Ministry of Health Covid-19 update
From Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Dr Ashley Bloomfield, Director-General of Health
April 13, 2020
Today the Ministry can report 19 new cases of Covid-19, made up of 15 new confirmed cases and four new probable cases. The death toll has now risen to five in New Zealand.
There are now 546 reported cases of Covid-19 infection which we can confirm have recovered – an increase of 75 on yesterday. We continue to report more people recovered than new cases.
The new combined total of confirmed and probable cases in New Zealand is 1349.
Today there are 15 people in hospital, an increase of one from yesterday. The total includes four people in ICU – one each in Wellington, Middlemore, Dunedin and North Shore hospitals. One of these ICU patients – in Dunedin – remains in a critical condition.
A total of 1660 tests were processed yesterday, with a rolling seven-day average of 3230 and total tests to date of 62,827. We anticipated a drop-off in testing over the Easter holiday period. Partly this is due to the effect of public holidays, and also with the measures in place around Alert Level 4, we would expect fewer people to be presenting with respiratory issues.
We will be increasing testing again this week and we’re well placed to do more testing across the country.
Rosewood cluster summary
We are saddened to report a fifth death linked to Covid-19, the third associated with the Rosewood Rest Home aged residential cluster.
The death is that of a man in his 80s, one of the Rosewood residents being cared for at Burwood Hospital in Christchurch.
His family are in our thoughts and we offer New Zealand’s sympathy to them.
Because of the underlying vulnerabilities of the group, we will continue to prepare for further serious illness and possible deaths.
The group was transferred from a high level psychogeriatric (or dementia) unit. The care they are receiving is consistent with the high level of psychogeriatric care they would have been provided at the facility and includes, where appropriate, end of life/palliative
Overall, there are now 33 Covid-19 cases associated with the Rosewood aged residential care cluster.
Of those cases, 17 are confirmed and 16 probable cases. The three people who have died were confirmed cases.
We are also aware that 13 of the 33 cases are residents of the facility and 18 are staff, with two connected through close contact or family transmission.
With the 18 staff cases, seven are confirmed positive and 11 probable.
We are aware that one of the staff members confirmed with Covid-19 is from Burwood. Canterbury DHB is investigating the route of transmission and will carry out further testing.
Clusters
The Ministry continues to have a considerable focus on clusters and recognises significant public interest in management of them.
Today we can report 15 clusters of 10 or more cases, an increase on two from yesterday.
The additional clusters are existing clusters where the numbers have risen (by 1 each) to reach 10. They are a workplace in Christchurch linked to overseas travel and an aged residential care facility in Auckland where the mode of transmission continues under investigation
The largest clusters continue to be Matamata (71 cases), Bluff (86 cases) and Marist College (85 cases).
