Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield and Minister of Health Chris Hipkins are providing an update on Covid-19.
Latest from live update:
- There are seven new confirmed cases of Covid-19 all of which are related to the Auckland cluster.
- Two are linked to a church and two are household contacts.
- One reported case is now considered recovered.
- The total number of active cases in NZ is 129.
- There are now 160 people linked to the cluster.
- Eight people are receiving hospital level care.
- Three people are critical and in ICU.
- Labs processed 4444 tests yesterday.
- Over 1.8 million people, nearly 45 percent of the population 15yrs and over, have registered for the Covid tracer app, which Bloomfield says is great to see.
- Chris Hipkins says the Covid-19 defence systems have gone into overdrive over the past 2 weeks.
- He says 80 percent of contacts traced are being contacted within 48 hours.
- “The scale and speed of this response should give New Zealanders a sense of pride,” Hipkins says.
- A new target of an additional 70,000 tests across the country is in place for the next 7 days.
- South Auckland communities will be a specific target of community testing, he says.
- At least 6 additional mobile testing units will be added.
- The units will be active for 2-3 days at a time and then move on to another area.
- Hipkins reiterates that there is no charge for getting tested.
- There’s testing fatigue amongst the public, he says.He says the government’s message is “please don’t relax now”.
- Details of mandatory mask use and how it will work in practice will be released on Thursday.
- Dr Bloomfield says no new light has been shed on where the one person in ICU at North Shore hospital was infected with Covid-19.
- He says they’re working on policy related to masks in schools but to remember WHO advice is targeted to countries with wide-spread community outbreaks.Requirements for masks on school buses will also be among the things clarified on Thursday.
- Hipkins says he’s not seen evidence to suggest masks in schools will greatly increase safety.
Watch the live update below:
https://youtu.be/cw2DaJDaLyA