The All of Government COVID-19 National Response will provide an update at 1.00 pm today, 9 April 2020.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield will provide an update on the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic shortly.

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Latest update from Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield

There are 23 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 6 probable cases in NZ today, Bloomfield says.
41 percent of cases are travel related, 44 related to close contacts and 2 percent community transmission. 13 percent are under investigation.
317 cases have now recovered.
There are no additional deaths, but 14 people are in hospital and 4 in ICU at North Shore, Middlemore and Dunedin hospitals.317 cases have now recovered.
There are still 12 clusters, the three largest are the wedding in Bluff with 87 cases, Marist College with 84 and Matamata with 66.
3990 tests were carried out yesterday.
Over a million doses of the flu vaccine have been distributed and there are good supplies in all regions, Bloomfield says.
The flu vaccine program for priority groups will be extended for two weeks until the end of April. Those not in priority groups should wait until after then.

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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern update:

Prime Minister Ardern says what New Zealanders have done over the last two weeks is huge.
“You are breaking the chain of transmission and you are doing it for each other,” she says.
Initial modelling showed NZ was on a similar trajectory to Italy and Spain. Current modelling shows lockdown measures are working.
To succeed, we need to keep working. Removing restrictions now would allow the virus to spread rapidly again.
While most are doing the right thing, some are not. We cannot let the selfish actions of others set us back.
Over one million of our fellow citizens are being supported by the wage subsidy scheme.
Numbers of those on benefits have risen by 10,000, the PM says.
The best economic response continues to be a strong health response says PM.
There are three areas where we need to be watertight. From midnight tonight, every NZer boarding a flight to return home will be required to quarantine in an govt-approved facility for minimum of 14 days.
One person slipping through the cracks and bringing the virus in can cause an explosion in cases.
Nearly 40,000 NZers have returned home since we closed the border to foreign nationals.
A network of up to 18 hotels will be used, with some set up for symptomatic travellers.
Scaled up and faster contact tracing is being worked on.
An app is in the early stages, with basic functionality.
The government is looking at bluetooth tracing used in Singapore.
This ongoing plan must be underpinned by testing, PM says.
“We have what we need to win this marathon”, Ardern says.
On April 20, two days before lockdown ends, Cabinet will make a decision on our next step.
She reiterates, we will not be moving out of level 4 early.
Businesses will have two days to prepare for the move into level 3.
As we head into Easter, I say thank you to you and your bubble”, Ardern says.

Watch: Government COVID-19 National Response Update, 9th April

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