Covid-19 coronavirus: Northland cases hit 20, $87m education plan set out

Northland's Covid-19 case tally has hit 20 as the country nervously approaches the Easter holidays.

Two women, one over 70 and the other in her 40s, are the latest to be added to Northland's tally which included five recovered cases.

Northland positive case summary:

Case 1 (RECOVERED): Male, 20s. Departed Paris on flight EY38 to Abu Dhabi on March 14, then to Sydney on flight EY450 and then to Auckland on VA0141, arriving on March 16.
Case 2 (RECOVERED): Female, 40s. Departed Melbourne on flight JQ217 to Auckland on March 15.
Case 3: Female, 50s. Departed UK on flight EK38 to Dubai on March 19. Departed Dubai on flight EK448 for Auckland on March 21 (Previously in hospital, now discharged).
Case 4 (RECOVERED): Male, 60s. Departed Los Angeles on flight NZ1 on March 23 and arrived in Auckland on March 24.
Case 5 (RECOVERED): Female, 20s. Departed Dubai on flight EK448 on March 19.
Case 6 (RECOVERED): Female, 20s. Departed Dubai on flight EK448 and arrived in New Zealand on March 24.
Case 7: Female, 60s (probable). Travelled from the United States out of LAX on March 18 and arrived in New Zealand on March 19.
Case 8: Female, 40s.
Case 9: Female, 20s. Departed Canada on flight GB615 on March 23 and arrived in New Zealand on the same date.
Case 10: Male, 50s. Departed United States and arrived in New Zealand on March 22.
Case 11: Female, 30s. No international travel.
Case 12: Female, 40s. No international travel.
Case 13: Male, 50s.
Case 14: Male, 60s.
Case 15: Male, 10-14. No international travel
Case 16: Male, 30s. No international travel.
Case 17: Female, 60s. No international travel.
Case 18: Female, 40s. No international travel.
Case 19: Female, 40s.
Case 20: Female, 70+

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Yesterday, the Northland District Health Board (NDHB) said it would not release further location details regarding the region's positive cases, despite having the power to do so.

Of Northland's 19 confirmed and one probable cases, seven self-identified as Māori and 13 were non-Māori.

Head to the end of the story for more details on the centres. Note: Kawakawa's testing centre is now on Rayner Street at the Ngāti Hine Health Trust with the same hours.

Director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield announced 50 new cases nationwide at Parliament yesterday. Twenty-six cases were confirmed and 24 were probable as at 9am yesterday. There were no more Covid-19 related deaths.

The new cases took the country's total to 1210, which included 282 people who had recovered. Twelve people were in hospital and four were in intensive care, including two in a critical condition.

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

With yesterday's number of new cases the lowest in two weeks, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said, "We may yet see bumps along the way but I remain cautiously optimistic that we are starting to turn a corner."

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she was 'cautiously optimistic' about New Zealand's case numbers yesterday. Photo / File

New Police Commissioner Andrew Coster also fronted media yesterday, alongside Director of Civil Defence Emergency Management Sarah Stuart-Black.

Coster said there had been 45 prosecutions, up from 16 just days ago, of people breaching lockdown rules in addition to 309 warnings issued by police enforcing the lockdown.

New Police Commissioner Andrew Coster. Photo / File

He confirmed eight police staff had been spat at - which potentially constituted a charge of infecting with disease, which under the Crimes Act, carried a maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment.

Anyone who spat deliberately on others was "thoughtless" and "malicious", Coster said.

Police had seen an "significant" but not "massive" increase in family harm incidents, according to Coster. While international evidence also suggested a rise in self-harm incidents, Coster said this hadn't been seen in New Zealand thus far.

With an increased police presence out for this weekend's Easter holidays, Coster warned against any travel unless it was for essential purposes.

Director of Civil Defence Emergency Management Sarah Stuart-Black. Photo / File

With the start of schools' term two on April 15, Education Minister Chris Hipkins yesterday announced a $87.7 million education package

More than 17,000 free computers would be given out to low-income families and two educational television channels would be launched in an all-out drive to help children learn at home while schools are closed.

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The Government would also provide 2000 modems this week, ramping up to thousands more over the next few weeks, for families with school-aged children who didn't have home internet access.

A further 20,000 families this week and 40,000 next week would get packs of hard-copy learning materials, targeted initially to children who were too young for online learning.

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