With only a handful of COVID-19 cases reported in New Zealand this week, the percentage of active cases has continued to fall significantly.
Of the 1498 cases recorded in Aotearoa, 1148 are confirmed, while 350 are probable. However, only 49 are active. These are those individuals who haven't died from the illness or yet be deemed "recovered". It doesn't necessarily mean they are infectious.
A case is considered "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 1428 recovered cases in New Zealand, up 60 on last Saturday. This is 95 percent of the country's total cases.
Three Kiwis are in hospital with the virus, while the death toll remains at 21 - the same as last week.
Where are the active cases?
With the vast majority of New Zealand's COVID-19 patients having recovered, many District Health Boards (DHB) have very few or no active cases. The Waitemata DHB, which has recorded the most cases (236), has 20 active cases, while Southern with 216 overall cases only has a single active patient.
New Zealand's three hospitalised cases can be found in Auckland Hospital, Middlemore Hospital and Waikato Hospital.
Cases in each DHB, ordered by the number of active cases
- Waitemata: 20 active, 213 recovered, 3 dead. Total: 236
- Auckland: 7 active, 171 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 178
- Waikato: 6 active, 181 recovered, 1 dead. Total: 188
- Canterbury: 5 active, 146 recovered, 12 dead. Total: 163
- Hawke's Bay: 5 active, 39 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 44
- Counties Manukau: 3 active, 124 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 127
- MidCentral: 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
- Tairawhiti: 0 active, 4 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 4
- Taranaki: 0 active, 16 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 16
- Whanganui: 0 active, 9 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 9
- Wairarapa: 0 active, 8 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 8
- West Coast: 0 active, 4 recovered, 1 dead. Total: 5.
Transmission
There are five types of transmission reported in New Zealand:
- Imported cases: Cases with a reported history of international travel within 14 days of the onset of their symptoms (38 percent)
- Imported related cases: Cases that have a reported link (close contact or an epidemiological link) to an imported or overseas acquired case (31 percent)
- Locally acquired cases, epidemiologically linked: Cases that have a reported link 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 the onset of their symptoms and no recorded epidemiological link to a source case (5 percent)
- Source under investigation (< 1 percent).
Clusters
There continue to be 16 significant clusters recorded in New Zealand. These are groups of 10 or more cases of COVID-19 where each case can be linked to a central location or an event.
Last week, there were four clusters considered "closed", meaning there was no longer transmission of the virus within or associated with the cluster. A cluster was determined to be closed after there had been 28 consecutive days (two incubation periods) 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, 95 recovered, unknown origin
- Matamata Bar: 77 overall cases, 75 recovered, linked to overseas exposure
- Rosewood Rest Home, Christchurch: 55 overall cases, 39 recovered, unknown origin
- St Margaret's Rest Home, Auckland: 50 overall cases, 27 recovered, unknown origin
- Stag party, Auckland: 39 overall cases, 39 recovered, unknown origins
- World Hereford Conference, Queenstown: 39 overall cases, 39 recovered, linked to overseas exposure
- 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 United States: 16 overall cases, 16 recovered, linked to overseas exposure
- Auckland group which travelled to the United States: 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
- 0-9: 1 active, 34 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 35
- 10-19: 3 active, 118 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 121
- 20-29: 8 active, 350 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 358
- 30-39: 10 active, 219 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 229
- 40-49: 7 active, 213 recovered, 0 dead. Total: 220
- 50-59: 5 active, 240 recovered, 0 dead: Total: 245
- 60-69: 3 active, 168 recovered, 3 dead. Total: 174
- 70-79: 3 active, 67 recovered, 7 dead. Total: 77
- 80-89: 7 active, 16 recovered, 7 dead. Total: 30
- 90+: 2 active, 3 recovered, 4 dead, Total: 9.
Gender
- Female: 833 (56 percent)
- Male: 664 (44 percent)
- Not specified: 1.
Ethnicity
- European or other: 1060 (71 percent)
- Asian: 185 (12 percent)
- Maori: 126 (8 percent)
- Pacific Peoples: 81 (5 percent)
- Middle Eastern / Latin American / African: 32 (2 percent)
- Unknown: 14 (1 percent).
