Covid-19 coronavirus: Number of Bay of Plenty cases rise

The number of Covid-19 cases in the Bay of Plenty District Health Board area has risen by four today, taking the total number of recorded cases to 36.

All four new cases were recorded in the Western Bay of Plenty.

The Eastern Bay of Plenty still only had one case, while the Western Bay of Plenty had 35.

The number of cases in the Lakes District, which included Rotorua and Taupō, had no change and remained at 12.

Director general of health Ashley Bloomfield revealed there were 54 new cases of coronavirus in New Zealand today - 32 new confirmed cases and 22 probable cases.

This brought New Zealand's total number of recorded cases to 1160.

More people had recovered from coronavirus in the last 24 hours than tested positive for the illness.

There were 12 people in hospital nationwide, including three in ICUs; one in Wellington and two in Auckland, with two in a critical condition.

The total number of lab tests so far was 42,800 with almost 3000 processed yesterday.

Bloomfield said currently two per cent of cases were a result of community transmission.

The Bay of Plenty was yet to record any potential Covid-19 clusters, such as cases from a St Patrick's Day celebration in Matamata which resulted in 41 people infected - nine of these were diagnosed since Saturday.

The district health board regions with the most cases were Southern, Waikato, Auckland and Waitemata.

Bloomfield expected the number of new cases to "continue to stay level" before a decline.

The number of people coming to New Zealand overseas with Covid-19 had been dropping and the most affected age group was still within the 20 to 29 bracket.

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Bloomfield said there had so far been 291 reported breaches of the lockdown rules. There had been 16 prosecutions and 263 warnings.

He said New Zealand can be "increasingly confident" in its Covid-19 response

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website