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Two new cases of coronavirus were reported on Saturday, one confirmed and one probable.
Both were linked to the St Margaret’s Hospital & Rest Home in Auckland, the Ministry of Health said in an update at 1pm.
The probable case was a nurse, while the confirmed case was a household contact.
The nurse had been looking after the rest home patients at Waitakere Hospital, where affected areas remain closed to further admissions.
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Not-For-Syndication
A nurse at Waitakere Hospital is a new probable Covid-19 case, the Ministry of Health said on Saturday.
Saturday’s cases bring New Zealand’s combined total of confirmed and probable Covid-19 cases to 1492.
That was made up of 1142 confirmed cases – the number reported to the World Health Organization – and 350 probable cases.
New Zealand now has 1368 people reported as having recovered from Covid-19, which was 92 per cent of all confirmed and probable cases – an increase of 21 from Friday.
Two people were in hospital on Saturday with Covid-19 – one in Middlemore and one in North Shore. Neither was in ICU.
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The number of significant clusters remained at 16, four of which were now closed, the MOH said.
There were no additional deaths to report, leaving the total at 21.
The 7204 tests completed on Friday took the total number of tests completed to 183,039. That was 3.5 per cent of the population, and put New Zealand in the top 20 countries per capita for testing.
MOH did not have a briefing on Saturday, with the updated data available on its website.
Cabinet is due to decide on Monday whether the country can move down to level 2. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has indicated there will be a 48-hour lead-in time to level 2 if New Zealand decides to move to it on Monday, meaning the earliest New Zealand could see level 2 would be midnight Wednesday.
A continuation of the trend from the past week – with low or no new daily cases, and all from known clusters – is important to give the Government some confidence on easing up on restrictions.
Martin De Ruyter / Stuff
Cabinet is due to decide on Monday whether the country can drop to alert level 2.
On Friday it was revealed a nurse who was caring for patients linked to the St Margaret’s rest home cluster is now in hospital with Covid-19.
The Ministry of Health reported two new confirmed cases of Covid-19 on Friday, but one was a probable case already known to officials, reducing the overall number of probable cases by 1.
That brought New Zealand’s combined total of confirmed and probable Covid-19 cases to 1490.
At the same time, 1347 people were reported as having recovered – 90 per cent of all confirmed and probable cases – an increase of 15 on Thursday.
On Friday three people were in hospital with Covid-19 – none are in ICU.
On Friday three people were in hospital with Covid-19 – none are in ICU.
