Three cases of coronavirus have been confirmed at Napier's Gladys Mary Care Home. Photo / File
Three cases of coronavirus have been confirmed at Napier's Gladys Mary Care Home. Photo / File
Three new cases of Covid-19 have been reported in Hawke's Bay, with the total number now sitting at 15.
They are a man and woman in their 70s and a man in his 30s.
Medical Officer of Health Dr Rachel Eyre said two new cases were Gladys Mary Care Home residents who were close contacts of a resident at the home previously confirmed to have coronavirus.
"These residents are being well managed in the rest home with all the necessary infection, prevention and control measures in place."
Eyre said the third confirmed case was still being investigated by public health. The person was doing well in self-isolation at home.
Covid-19 symptoms include a cough, high temperature, runny nose, sneezing or shortness of breath.
An elderly bus driver, who was the second coronavirus case in Hawke's Bay to have a direct link to the Ruby Princess, returned a positive test on Saturday. Photo / File
Stuff reported an elderly bus driver, who was the second coronavirus case in Hawke's Bay to have a direct link to the Ruby Princess, returned a positive test on Saturday, 13 days after he drove passengers around the region when the cruise ship called into the Napier Port on March 15.
The man's employer, who did not want to be identified, said to Stuff the driver had shown no serious symptoms and believed he had no more than a "bit of a cough".
He said the driver was tested after learning of the positive cases on the cruise ship.
More than 160 passengers have tested positive since the Ruby Princess docked in Sydney on March 19 after taking 2700 passengers and 1100 crew around New Zealand.
The driver is presently in Hawke's Bay Hospital in a stable condition.
"I've been talking to him today and he's good," his employer said.
All other drivers in his company had been tested and were negative.
A sign in a building in Hastings. Photo / Paul Taylor
Eyre said contact tracing work continued with teams working to identify anyone who may have come into contact with passengers or crew from the Ruby Princess.
"Anyone who believes they were in close contact with Ruby Princess passenger or crew and have developed Covid-19 symptoms in the past fortnight are strongly advised to contact their GP so they could be assessed for referral to a Community-Based Assessment Centre for testing, said Eyre.
People are also able to call Healthline's free 24/7 dedicated Covid-19 number on 0800 358 5453 for advice. Interpreters are available on request.
The number of cases nationwide was also expected to continue increasing in spite of only 58 additional Covid-19 cases on Tuesday taking the total up to 647.
There were 48 confirmed cases and 10 probable cases.
Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield, on Tuesday, said while there had been a drop in the number, he didn't think it reflected a drop in the number of cases.
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The expectation was still that the number of cases would continue to increase, he said.
Seventy-four people with coronavirus had since recovered, he said.
Bloomfield said there was still a strong link to overseas travel and contact with already confirmed cases.
Clusters would be investigated and contact-traced, he said.
On Tuesday Bloomfield talked about the modelling released by the Government, and said it painted a "sobering picture" of what could happen if they didn't take aggressive actions in response to Covid-19.
"We need to take this virus seriously and part of taking this seriously was making sure everybody had to play their part and observe the self-isolation rules.
"That is how we will collectively break the chain of transmission."
He said people should take the worst-case scenarios - which suggested 14,000 people could die if Covid-19 spreads out of control in New Zealand - "very seriously" as the scenarios show what would happen if the country didn't take lockdown measures.
Ideally, NZ wanted to break the chain of transmission and ultimately eradicate the virus, he said.
He said the Health Ministry wanted to increase testing further and the case definition of Covid-19 would be widened, likely to not just include overseas travel or contact with a confirmed case.
That was in response to the number of cases and community transmission.
