Covid-19 coronavirus: Northland has third case recovering in hospital

Northland now has three cases of Covid-19 with one recovering in a stable condition in hospital.

Announced by Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield this afternoon, one person is recovering at Whangārei hospital due to Covid-19. Another six people are recovering in hospitals in Wellington, Nelson and Waikato. Bloomfield confirmed none are in ICU.

Northland's hospitalised case is a New Zealand woman in her 50s who returned home on March 21 after leaving the United Kingdom and flying to Dubai on March 19 on flight Emirates EK38. The woman's flight from Dubai to Auckland was Emirates EK448.

She is isolated in a ward at Whangārei hospital. Northland's two other cases are recovering in isolation at home.

Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield announced today there was one person recovering in a stable condition at Northland Base hospital in Whangārei. Photo / File

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Northland's third Covid-19 case comes as 78 new cases (73 confirmed and five probable) were announced, bringing New Zealand's number of total cases to 283 as at 9:30am today.

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

Details of these cases will be released by the Ministry of Health as they emerge.

Bloomfield also confirmed 27 people had recovered from Covid-19 to date.

Northland had its first confirmed case of coronavirus on Thursday last week - a man in his 20s who returned home from overseas early last week.

The Northlander flew from Paris to Abu Dhabi on Etihad flight EY38, then on to Sydney on flight EY450, and the final leg of his journey to Auckland on Monday was on Virgin Australia flight V0141.

Northland's second case was a woman who had recently returned from Australia and tested positive. The Northlander, in her 40s, flew from Melbourne to Auckland on flight JQ217 on Sunday, March 15.

Yesterday, 2417 tests were processed nationwide, taking the total number of tests to 12,683. About 1400 tests have been done daily in the last week.

More details to follow