Govt releases documents; 2 new cases

WELLINGTON: The Government yesterday released more than 300 documents related to its response to the Covid19 pandemic, two new cases were confirmed and offices and retailers are working out how to manage under Level 2.

One of two new cases of Covid19 confirmed yesterday is a nurse who has been caring for St Margaret’s cluster patients.

Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay said the nurse was being cared for at North Shore Hospital.

The other case reported was a probable case that has now been confirmed. There have been no further deaths.

Three people are in hospital — one in Auckland City, one in Middlemore and one in North Shore. None are in ICU.

Yesterday, there was a total of 1490 cases in New Zealand, with 1347 people now recovered from Covid19 — 90% of all confirmed and probable cases.

Dr McElnay said 7812 tests were processed on Thursday, and a total of 175,835 tests had been processed to date.

Yesterday marked 20 days of no new cases in the South.

The total case number remained at 216, and just seven cases are still active.

More than 2000 asymptomatic people across the Southern district have been tested for Covid19, all of the tests returning negative so far.

WellSouth medical director Dr Stephen Graham said reduced community demand for testing meant the communitybased assessment centre at the Queenstown Memorial Centre would close at the end of the day on Monday.

There had been a steady decline in demand for swabbing in the district over the past two weeks, in the range of five to a single test per day.

Designated practices in the area, including the Queenstown Medical Centre and Wakatipu Medical Centre, as well as the Wanaka Medical Centre and Aspiring Medical Centre in Wanaka, were still available to do the tests, even to nonpatients.

The Queenstown assessment centre would remain equipped to quickly scale up again if the need arose, he said.

Centres in Dunedin and Invercargill continued to operate as usual.

Speaking at the same media conference, Finance Minister Grant Robertson said the Government knew the restrictions from Level 3 and 4 caused a significant impact.

The Government yesterday afternoon released a wealth of material related to its response to the Covid19 pandemic.

The release of more than 300 documents includes papers, minutes and advice to most sectors of the government from January until April 17.

One of the earliest papers dates back to January 28, when a Cabinet minute discussed a low risk to New Zealand but a potentially serious risk to public health.

Other official documents discuss the decisionmaking centred on alert levels and restrictions, the border, public heath, housing, income support and foreign affairs. — RNZ