Nine COVID-19 patients are hospitalised in New Zealand, with a third of those in intensive care.
The Ministry of Health's Saturday update revealed that of the 111 active COVID-19 cases in New Zealand, nine are currently in hospital.
Two patients are at Auckland City Hospital, four are at Middlemore Hospital, two are in North Shore Hospital and a single patient is found at Waikato Hospital, Hamilton.
Six of these patients are stable on a hospital ward, while three are in intensive care in Middlemore Hospital. That's up from a single person on Friday.
The ministry says that patients in hospital are isolated and "carefully managed separately from other patients".
"The public can be confident that our DHBs are managing this effectively, as they did in the first outbreak of COVID-19 in New Zealand," the ministry says.
It also had a message to Kiwis concerned about going to hospital at the moment.
"We have heard reports of people who are reluctant to get an ambulance or go to hospital - hospitals continue to be safe places to receive medical care, and people should feel confident going to hospital to receive treatment."
Six new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in the community on Saturday. This takes New Zealand's overall total to 1321 confirmed cases.
Of the 111 active cases, 16 were found in managed isolation or quarantine facilities. All but three of the active cases have been linked to a south Auckland cluster.
One of those three is a maintenance worker at the Rydges Hotel managed isolation facility. This person is genomically linked to a positive returnee from the US, however, how the person became exposed has not yet been nailed down. One line of inquiry is that the case entered an elevator minutes after the US returnee.
The two other cases under investigation were announced on Saturday and no further information is yet available.
