Fourth day of no new cases

For the fourth consecutive day there are no new cases of coronavirus, director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said at the daily press conference yesterday.

The total number of confirmed cases remained at 1154. The combined total of confirmed and probable cases was 1504.

The number of people who have recovered now sits at 1461, and just 22 cases were considered to be active cases, Bloomfield said.

One person remains in Middlemore Hospital. The national death toll stands at 21. On Monday there were 1841 tests conducted, and the country’s total sat at 263,156.

Bloomfield said there were now 405,000 registrations for the Government’s Covid-19 tracer app, which was an increase of

25,000 on the day prior. About

15,200 businesses had downloaded the Government’s QR poster, and that represented roughly a quarter of active businesses – retail or hospitality venues.

He said that the hard work by all New Zealanders to reach this point meant that on Monday the Government was able to make an announcement around allowing gatherings of up to 100 people, while still remaining in level 2.

This will mean that from Friday, many of the activities people have been looking forward to can resume, such as church and faith-based gatherings, family events and weddings, he said.

With the exception of significant events such as large sporting fixtures, concerts and the like, it means most normal activities are now possible in some form under level 2, he said.

In terms of those people who were asking about alert level 1, Bloomfield reminded them that New Zealand was already moving through the alert levels more quickly than other countries.

He said they were acutely aware that level 2 restrictions did impact some businesses and people’s lives and they wanted to get the balance right. Authorities were working hard on the detail of what alert level 1 would look like so that New Zealand could move there as soon as it was safe to do so, he said.