Thursday, May 14 - no new Covid cases for three days

From the Ministry of Health.

For the third consecutive day, we are reporting no new cases of COVID-19.

This means New Zealand’s combined total of confirmed and probable cases remains at 1,497, of which 1,147 are confirmed.

We now have 1,411 people reported as having recovered from COVID-19, an increase of 9 on yesterday. This is 94% of all confirmed and probable cases.

Today there are two people receiving hospital level care for COVID-19 – one each in Auckland and Middlemore hospitals. Neither are in ICU.

We still have 16 significant clusters.

There are no additional deaths to report.

Yesterday our laboratories processed 6,568 tests, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 209,613.

Level 2
On day 1 of Level 2, the behaviours which will keep COVID-19 out of the New Zealand environment continue to be vitally important. The key health measures in Level 2 are:

· keep your distance from other people when you’re out in public, including on transport
· most importantly - if you’re sick, stay home. Don’t go to work or school. Don’t socialise
· if you have symptoms of cold or flu call your doctor or Healthline immediately and get tested
· good hand hygiene will continue to be a simple and effective tool to keep COVID-19 at bay
· keep your social gatherings to a maximum of 10 people at once
· keep track of where you’ve been and who you’ve seen to help with contact tracing if we need it.

Clusters

We had previously closed four clusters as they met our definition of two full transmission periods (the equivalent of 28 days) since their last case was notified.

In the meantime, we have received and accepted advice that we will use an improved definition of a closed cluster. This is that there should be two full transmission periods since the last case completed their isolation period.

We are now using that definition and will also be applying it retrospectively which means none of the four previous clusters are considered closed. It’s important to note that there has been no new disease activity in these clusters.

We don’t expect any clusters to close under the new definition until later this month.

From a public health point of view taking this step makes it easier for public health unit staff to retain appropriate public health measures such as isolation while they continue to learn all they can from the different clusters.

From the public point of view this means only minor changes to the information on our website.