New Zealand is continuing to close the gap between active and recovered COVID-19 cases, with only five new cases confirmed this week.
Of the country's 1499 cases, 1149 are confirmed and 350 are probable. However, only 45 of these are active. These cases are people that haven't recovered or died, and it also doesn't mean these people are infectious.
A case is deemed recovered when it has been at least 10 days since the onset of their symptoms, they haven't exhibited these for at least 48 hours, and they have been cleared by a health professional. There are 1433 recovered cases, which is 95.6 percent of all cases.
There are two people in hospital, neither of which are in an ICU. The death toll remains at 21 - the same as last week.
Locations of active cases
Now the majority of COVID-19 cases have recovered, there are many District Health Boards (DHB) that have zero active cases.
Waitematā DHB has both the most recorded overall cases (236) and the highest number of current active cases (18). While the Southern DHB has recorded 216 cases, it only has one active case.
New Zealand's two hospitalised patients are in Auckland Hospital and Middlemore Hospital.
Cases in each DHB, ordered by the number of active cases
- Waitematā: 18 active, 215 recovered, 3 dead. Total: 236
- Canterbury: 6 active, 146 recovered, 12 dead. Total: 164
- Waikato: 6 active, 181 recovered, 1 dead. Total: 188
- Hawke's Bay: 5 active, 39 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 44
- Auckland: 4 active, 174 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 178
- Counties Manukau: 3 active, 124 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 127
- Mid Central: 1 active, 31 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 32
- Nelson Marlborough: 1 active, 48 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 49
- Southern: 1 active, 213 recovered, 2 dead. Total: 216
- Bay of Plenty: 0 active, 47 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 47
- Capital and Coast: 0 active, 93 recovered, 2 dead. Total: 95
- Hutt Valley: 0 active, 20 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 20
- Lakes: 0 active, 16 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 16
- Northland: 0 active, 28 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 28
- South Canterbury: 0 active, 17 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 17
- Tairāwhiti: 0 active, 4 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 4
- Taranaki: 0 active, 16 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 16
- Wairarapa: 0 active, 8 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 8
- West Coast: 0 active, 4 recovered, 1 dead. Total: 5
- Whanganui: 0 active, 9 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 9
Transmission
There are five types of transmission in New Zealand:
- Imported cases: Cases with a reported history of international travel within 14 days of the onset of symptoms (38 percent)
- Imported related cases: Cases that have a reported link (close contact or epidemiological link) to an imported or overseas acquired case (31 percent)
- Locally acquired cases epidemiologically linked: Cases that have a reported link (close contact or other epidemiological links) to a locally acquired case with an unknown source (25 percent)
- Locally acquired cases, unknown source: Cases that have no reported history of international travel within 14 days of onset and no recorded epidemiological link to a source case (5 percent)
- Source of infection remains under investigation (<1 percent)
Clusters
There continue to be 16 significant clusters in New Zealand. These are groups of 10 or more cases that are connected through transmission and who aren't all part of the same household. Clusters include both confirmed and probable cases.
Last week, four clusters were considered closed, meaning there was no longer transmission of the virus within the cluster. A cluster was considered closed when 28 consecutive days - or two virus incubation periods - had passed since the last reported case.
However, since then, the Ministry of Health "received advice" and changed the definition. A closed cluster is now one where 28 days has passed since the last case within the cluster completed their isolation period. While the Ministry said there had been "no new disease activity" in any of the four previously closed clusters, under the new definition, each was considered open.
"We don’t expect any clusters to close under the new definition until later this month," the Ministry said on Thursday.
"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."
- Bluff wedding: 98 overall cases, 92 recovered, linked to overseas exposure
- Marist College, Auckland: 96 overall cases, 96 recovered, unknown origin
- Matamata bar: 77 overall cases, 75 recovered, linked to overseas exposure
- Rosewood Rest Home, Christchurch: 56 overall cases, 39 recovered, unknown origin
- St Margaret's Rest Home, Auckland: 50 overall cases, 31 recovered, unknown origin
- World Hereford Conference, Queenstown: 39 overall cases, 39 recovered, linked to overseas exposure
- Stag party, Auckland: 39 overall cases, 39 recovered, unknown origin
- Community, Auckland: 30 overall cases, 30 recovered, unknown origin
- Ruby Princess Cruise Ship, Hawke’s Bay: 24 overall cases, 19 recovered, linked to overseas exposure
- George Manning retirement village, Christchurch: 19 overall cases, 19 recovered, unknown origin
- Wellington group which travelled to the US: 16 overall cases, 16 recovered, linked to overseas exposure
- Auckland group which travelled to the US: 16 overall cases, 15 recovered, linked to overseas exposure
- Waikato rest home: 15 overall cases, 13 recovered, linked to overseas exposure
- Community, Christchurch: 14 overall cases, 14 recovered, linked to overseas exposure
- Auckland rest home: 13 overall cases, 12 recovered, linked to overseas exposure
- Wellington wedding: 13 overall cases, 13 recovered, linked to overseas exposure
Ages
- 0 to 9: 2 active, 34 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 36
- 10 to 19: 2 active, 119 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 121
- 20 to 29: 7 active, 351 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 358
- 30 to 39: 9 active, 220 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 229
- 40 to 49: 5 active, 215 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 220
- 50 to 59: 5 active, 240 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 245
- 60 to 69: 3 active, 168 recovered, 3 dead. Total: 174
- 70 to 79: 3 active, 67 recovered, 7 dead. Total: 77
- 80 to 89: 7 active, 16 recovered, 7 dead. Total: 30
- 90+: 2 active, 3 recovered, 4 dead. Total: 9
Gender
- Female: 833 (56 percent)
- Male: 665 (44 percent)
- Not specified: 1
Ethnicity
- European/Other: 1059 (71 percent)
- Asian: 186 (12 percent)
- Māori: 126 (8 percent)
- Pacific Peoples: 81 (5 percent)
- Middle Eastern / Latin American / African: 32 (2 percent)
- Unknown: 15 (1 percent)
