COVID-19 Update: 8 April 2020

We are at

of New Zealand’s four-level COVID-19 alert system. It is likely Level 4 measures will stay in place for a number of weeks. More information on alert levels.

• Everyone must now stay home, except those providing essential services.
• Only make physical contact with those that you live with.

Government COVID-19 Response Briefing

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

Speakers:

• Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
• Dr Ashley Bloomfield, Director-General of Health

Ministry of Health Update:

• 26 new confirmed, 24 probable cases, 50 total new cases
• 282 people who have recovered
• 1210 total cases
• 12 in hospital, 4 ICU in critical condition
• 3343 is the 7 day rolling average number of tests
• 4098 tests tests yesterday, highest number of tests on a single day
• Over 45,000 tests
• Community transmission at 2%
• Clusters: Marist 84, Matamata 62 Bluff 81
• People should not hesitate to go to the doctor if they need to for flu vaccines or regular care for chronic conditions.
• For perspective, 45,000 tests isn’t even 1% of our population.
• Bloomfield admits that close contacts of people with Covid-19 will still not be tested if they are asymptomatic. Why not? Over 80% of C-19 people don’t show symptoms so they may be positive and infecting others, but we aren’t testing them!
• Bloomfield said he’d heard of reports of long waits for results, and said if the test is positive, the person is contacted immediately by the public health unit. Negative result has taken some time to get back.
• Aim is to process swabs within 24 hours and then report the results from there and everybody should be notified within the next 24 hours. So that is the aim…What are they achieving now?

Prime Minister Update:

• Optimistic corner has been turned, but thinks there may be bumps along the way.
• Churches will stay closed over the Easter Weekend. Says she knows this will be hard but hopes live streams of services can help.
• The Government is spending $330m to support air freight over the next six months.
• Quoting Nigel Latta, the same fool who said this was just the flu. Yeah, really, she’s quoting him.

• For Kiwis stuck in the Pacific, Ardern said the defence force’s P3 is going in first and then they’re waiting to hear what supplies are needed. After that, plans to evacuate Kiwis there will be looked at.
• Re: 5G conspiracy, Ardern said “that is not true” and “I can’t state it clearly enough”. She said she almost hesitated to answer it on this platform because “it is just not true”. Munters are burning 5G cabinets in Christchurch
• Public health response has been carefully tailored for Maori and Pasifika communities. But hang on, we’ve been told that Covid-19 targets everyone regardless of race.

Yesterday’s details.

• 32 new confirmed, 22 probable cases, 54 total new cases
• 241 people who have recovered
• 1160 total cases
• 12 in hospital, 4 ICU in critical condition
• 3063 is the 7 day rolling average number of tests
• 2908 tests yesterday
• 42,826 tests completed so far

COVID-19 – current cases

View full details of the confirmed cases.

View details of significant COVID-19 clusters.

View interactive map and dashboard.

Confirmed and probable cases by DHB

Total cases by DHB in hospital

Download the Map of confirmed and probable cases by DHB (PDF, 282 KB).

Total cases in hospital by DHB

Note: Four of the 12 in hospital are in ICU.

Epidemic Curve

Total Cases by Age and Gender

Ethnicity percentages of all cases

Transmission

This information refers to the 1,210 confirmed and probable cases as at 9.00 am 8 April 2020.

Lab testing

Note: 1 new laboratory – Pathlab Tauranga – started testing on 4 April 2020.

COVID-19 – tests by day and cumulative