A woman in her 90s has passed away after contracting Covid-19 bringing the total death toll in New Zealand to 19.
Director-general of Health Ashley Bloomfield says the woman was a resident at the St Margarets Hospital and Rest Home in Auckland and died yesterday at Waitākere Hospital.
“Our thoughts are obviously with her family at this sad time,” he says.
The woman was a confirmed case of Covid-19 and had a number of underlining health issues.
“She was one of the residents transferred to Waitākere Hospital earlier in the month and is the third person from that cluster to have died,” says Dr Bloomfield.
The number of Covid-19 cases in New Zealand has increased by five overnight, including one confirmed case and four probable cases.
“All of those cases today can be traced to a known source. Three are linked to the St Margaret’s Rest Home cluster in Auckland and two are linked to other known cases.”
Dr Bloomfiled says six cases, that were previously probable, have been classified as still under investigation or not a case.
"This means our current national total is now 1,469 and that’s a net reduction of one.”
In total 1,180 have recovered from the infection, an increase of 38 since yesterday.
“This means 80 per cent of our cases are now recovered,” says Dr Bloomfield.
There are seven people in hospital including one person in intensive care in Middlemore Hospital in Auckland.
According to the Ministry of Health, nine percent of total cases are of Māori people and five per cent are Pacific.
Yesterday there were 2,939 tests processed, and the total number of tests processed across the country is 123,920.
“The lower number of tests yesterday fits the patterns of what we see in the weekends.”
Information about each case can be found at the Ministry of Health website.