Southern case rate declining

Elderly woman second NZ fatality

AN elderly Christchurch woman yesterday became the second New Zealander to die of Covid19, as the number of new cases of the pandemic disease confirmed in the South dropped markedly for the second straight day.

Just two new Covid19 cases were confirmed in the southern region yesterday, one of the lowest daily increases across Otago and Southland for some days.

The apparent slowing of new infections in the region — six new cases were identified on Thursday

— will come as a relief to local health officials, after a surge in cases soon after

Covid19 arrived in New Zealand resulted in the region becoming the one with the most cases nationwide, a status it has yet to relinquish.

One of the

South’s 202 cases is in hospital in intensive care; that person has been in a critical condition for some days and remained in that condition yesterday.

The Christchurch woman, along with 20 other residents of the Rosewood Rest Home, was moved to Burwood Hospital earlier in the week after a case of Covid19 was discovered at the home.

Yesterday, the Canterbury District Health Board announced 20 more residents would be relocated to other resthomes over the next week. This would leave 24 residents.

The elderly, ill and immunecompromised are statistically at much greater risk of death from Covid19 infection and the woman, who was in her 90s, had multiple agerelated health conditions, Directorgeneral of public health Caroline McElnay said.

‘‘Because of the current Alert Level 4 no family members were able to visit the woman in hospital in recent days, and were not able to be present when she passed away,’’ Dr McElnay said.

‘‘However, hospital staff were able to provide her with comfort and support and we thank them for that.’’

The latest death reinforced the need to maintain Level 4 protocols and limit the spread of Covid19, Dr McElnay said.

New Zealand’s first Covid19 death, a Greymouth woman, was on March 29.

Nationally, there were 1283 confirmed and probable Covid19 cases in New Zealand yesterday.

Sixteen people are in hospital with Covid19, four in intensive care and two critical; however, New Zealand has not had the high death rates of many other countries.

While yesterday’s number of new Covid19 cases, 44, was an increase on Thursday’s 29 cases, New Zealand does seem to be slowing the rate of infection. Dr McElnay said health officials could not afford to be complacent about the lower number of cases in recent days.

‘‘I think we are still generally heading in the right direction and it is really affirming to see that, but I must emphasise that we are not out of the woods yet.’’

Most of the new cases in recent days had been linked to clusters, including the Bluff wedding, which has been connected to 87 patients.

‘‘These [new cases] are cases occurring in the households of people who were in the event,’’ Dr McElnay said.

‘‘But that next generation has been able to be contained because it has been within those households . . . Had we not been in Level 4 lockdown we would have expected more cases as a result of those individuals who had been at the wedding returning back to their normal places of work and communities.’’