Director of Public Health Caroline McElnay said one of the new cases was linked to overseas travel, three to existing clusters and one was under investigation. Photo / File
There are no new cases of Covid-19 in the Bay of Plenty as New Zealand mourns one more death and five new cases.
Results from Covid-19 testing of around 250 kiwifruit workers in a Te Puke hostel which took place yesterday are not yet available.
To date, there have been a total of 47 cases in the Bay of Plenty District Health Board, which covers Tauranga and Whakatāne, and 16 cases in the Lakes DHB which covers Rotorua and Taupō.
In the region, there are 16 active cases, two down from yesterday, with 14 in the Bay of Plenty DHB area and two in the Lakes DHB.
Fourty-seven people have recovered and one person remains in Tauranga Hospital.
The first tests for the 250 seasonal workers in Te Puke were expected back Saturday at the earliest, a spokeswoman for the Bay of Plenty District Health Board emergency operations centre said.
It may take several days for all results to be processed, as some would need to be sent to labs out of the region.
The DHB aimed to give an overview of the results when a "reliably large proportion" of the tests were back.
The single positive case that sparked the mass testing was a staff member at the accommodation, the DHB has clarified.
In the case of further testing of close contacts of three people connected to mental health services in Tauranga, any positive results would be sent to the Ministry of Health to be communicated as part of the daily update on case numbers.
• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website
Director of Public Health Caroline McElnay announced the country has five new Covid-19 cases today, with two confirmed and three probable.
One was linked to overseas travel, three to existing clusters and one was under investigation.
The person who died was a man in his 60s from the Rosewood Rest Home in Christchurch died in its hospital wing and was the 10th person from Rosewood to die.
In total, 1095 people have recovered from Covid-19 in New Zealand. There are eight people in hospital, with one in ICU in Middlemore
There were 6961 tests yesterday - a new daily record - and 108,238 in total have now been processed.
The Lakes DHB carried out 75 swab tests yesterday.
There were 51 at the Rotorua test site and 24 in Taupō. There have been 1576 swab tests so far.
Five people were seen at the Community Based Assessment Centres in Rotorua and none were seen in Taupō.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson said "one thing to make very clear" was level 3 was still a very restrictive environment.
Economic plan
The economic plan to respond and recover came in three waves, Robertson said.
The first has already been under way, fighting the virus and cushioning the economic impact.
Wave two of the economic plan would get under way under alert level 3, with more industries and businesses opening up, he said.
Wave three was ensuring we have a robust and regenerating economy and will look at productivity, sustainability and inequality.
Robertson said low income New Zealanders were struggling under Covid-19 and there were various support schemes in place to help them.
Robertson said they recognised that and would continue to work with charities.
On increasing welfare support, he said the Government would continue to work to raise the incomes of New Zealand's lowest earners.
He encouraged New Zealanders to buy local and support small businesses and suppliers because that would have a good impact.
MetService forecasts warm, wet Christmas for Bay of Plenty, rain easing by Dec 27.