Coronavirus Covid-19 in New Zealand: two deaths, three new cases

Two Covid-19 deaths in Auckland in 12 hours have proven to be a strong reminder of the dire results for some infected with a virus that has killed more than 871,000 worldwide this year.

Two people with the virus, a man in his 50s and former Cook Islands Prime Minister Dr Joe Williams, 85, died in Auckland hospitals on Friday. Yesterday three new cases of the virus were reported, two in the community and one in managed isolation.

The deaths were a “stark and sad reminder of how deadly this virus is and can be,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said.

Williams’ death at Auckland City Hospital marked a double tragedy for his family, after the brother of the respected Mt Wellington physician, Tuaine Williams, 92, died peacefully the day before at Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane.

The double tragedy had hit the family hard, said Williams’ nephew, Dr. Kiki Maoate.

“They are recovering from that.”

His uncle was an inspiration, Maoate said.

“His closeness and his desire to help people gave him that drive to be good at what he did.”

Williams was a former Cook Islands health minister who then led the country for four months in 1999. He was also a candidate for the Prime Minister of New Zealand in 2005 and yesterday received honors from Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters as well as the Director General for Health Ashley Bloomfield and Finance Minister Grant Robertson.

“He was an enduring example of a Cook Islander who came to New Zealand for an education and then made a real difference in his chosen career,” Peters said.

Williams was admitted to hospital on August 13 and is believed to have been in close contact with someone related to the August Auckland group.

That group, which caused Auckland to return to the Level 3 lockdown for nearly three weeks, was first detected on August 11 in a family member of a worker at Americold Coolstore, which is close to Williams’ practice in Mt Wellington.

He became the 24th person in New Zealand to die from Covid-19 and the second in a day related to the Auckland group.

The other man, whose death at Middlemore Hospital on Friday marked New Zealand’s first Covid-19 death in more than three months, was described by Newshub as a father of four and a worker at Americold, originally from Tokoroa.

Meanwhile, the two positive Covid-19 cases in the community yesterday were epidemiologically linked to the Auckland group, the Health Ministry said.

“One case has been linked as a close contact with the Americold household subgroup and the other is a close contact from a confirmed case linked to the Mt Roskill Evangelical Church subgroup.”

The third case was a child who was already in quarantine with relatives. The boy is linked to a previously identified case that arrived from India on August 23.

Two people with Covid-19 were in the hospital yesterday, one in the intensive care unit at Waikato Hospital and the other in a ward at North Shore Hospital.

Since August 11, the ministry’s contact tracing team has identified 3,222 close case contacts, of which 3,177 have been contacted and are self-isolating. Seventy-seven people linked to the community group are in the Auckland quarantine facility, including 60 who have tested positive for Covid-19.

The new cases bring the number of active cases to 112 and the total confirmed cases in New Zealand to 1,416.

Health Ministry officials confirmed last night that they were investigating a possible Covid-19 case in Canterbury.

The person is in controlled isolation, however, it is unclear if he has come from abroad or has been in the community.

Laboratories across the country processed 9,470 Covid-19 tests yesterday, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 807,460.

The country will remain at Tier 2, except for Auckland, which is at the most restrictive tier 2.5, until at least Sept. 16, Ardern said on Friday.

At level 2.5, travel restrictions in Auckland are relaxed, but social gatherings are still limited to 10 people and Auckland residents who travel have been urged to carry that limit with them.

A global survey ranked New Zealand as the second safest country in the world when it comes to Covid-19, behind Germany, but ahead of South Korea, which ranks third. Australia ranked sixth, China seventh and the United States 55th.

The Deep Knowledge Group survey found that the nations most dangerous for Covid-19, which has infected 26.5 million worldwide, were Somaliland, South Sudan, Afghanistan and Mali, Forbes reported.

It was taken into account if a country had been seriously affected by the virus, as well as if there was political will and social acceptance of the quarantine and closure measures.

The survey also considered whether national and local governments cooperated well, a nation had good monitoring and detection, and a strong medical system.