Watch live: two more people die from Covid-19, 29 new cases today

There have been two more Covid-19 related deaths in New Zealand.

This brings the death toll to four, says Public Health Director Dr. Caroline McElnay.

McElnay reported 29 new cases today and said 422 people with Covid-19 in New Zealand have recovered.

The last two people who died from Covid-19 were elderly: A man in his 80s passed away yesterday at Wellington Public Hospital and had a link to an established group that will not be identified.

He first felt bad on March 26 and was admitted to the hospital on March 28.

The second was a man in his 70s who died at Burwood Hospital after being among the transferred group from the Rosewood Rest Home.

It was tested on April 9.

McElnay could not rule out whether the two had other underlying conditions

Due to the Level 4 alert, McElnay said they understood families and could feel separated from their loved ones.

“We want them to know that our healthcare system will continue to do everything possible to continue the fight against Covid 19.”

New Covid-19 cluster in Chch

Three of the four deaths in New Zealand are linked to groups.

There are now 13 Covid-19 groups across the country.

George Manning’s residential care center in Christchurch is the thirteenth Covid-19 group in this country.

One group is linked to a private party in Auckland, while another group can now be linked to a daycare for children with disabilities

McElnay was unable to give the date of the private performance in Auckland.

She said there was a continuous stream of people at the function.

It was not a function at the workplace, but a private function, McElnay said.

McElnay said family members at the Rosewood Rest Home should contact the local DHB directly for answers on what to do.

Investigations into how people became infected in the Christchurch Rest Home are still ongoing.

McElnay said the Canterbury DHB made the right decision to move patients to provide the “additional level of support.”

At George Manning’s rest home, where there are 14 cases, there was a mix of residents and staff, and McElnay said the virus was “well contained” there.

At Rosewood, McElnay said the group was “frail and elderly” and that the impact of Covid 19 was that the affected group may have been a “very unpleasant disease.”

McElnay said that today he would tell all DHBs to contact all of their senior care centers and inform them of the procedures they should already have.

Frontline workers test positive for Covid-19

McElnay said there were now three positive nurses at Waikato Hospital and investigations were ongoing, but all of the nurses were close contacts outside of the workplace.

The supermarket worker in Flaxmere who had tested positive had a family connection to a case, McElnay said.

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New Zealand’s second confirmed death from Covid 19 was confirmed yesterday after a 90-year-old woman with underlying health problems died at Burwood Hospital.

She was one of 20 hospitalized residents of Rosewood Rest Home after someone tested positive for the facility.

The other death was West Coast woman Anne Guenole, 73, who died in hospital on March 29, two days after testing positive for Covid-19.

Meanwhile, a group of 16 New Zealanders and 96 Australians will board a repatriation flight in Uruguay this afternoon.

They had been trapped on a cruise ship in which more than half of its passengers tested positive for the coronavirus.

The flight will land in Melbourne, then the Kiwis will be transferred to a flight back home, and then the passengers will be quarantined.