Today the Ministry can report 19 new cases of COVID-19, made up of 15 new confirmed cases and four new probable cases.
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 1 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.
1660 tests were processed yesterday, with a rolling 7-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.
