Covid 19 coronavirus: Two more Northland cases, NZ now at 589

Northland has two more confirmed Covid-19 cases in New Zealand's 76 new confirmed or probable cases announced yesterday.

The two new cases took Northland's total to nine, including eight confirmed and one probable case. The eighth case (confirmed) was a woman in her 40s - no other details were available as at 5.30pm yesterday.

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Northland's ninth case (confirmed) was a woman in her 20s, who departed Canada on flight GB615 on March 23 and arrived in New Zealand on the same date.

Case 1: 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: 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 (recovering in Whangarei hospital as of 26/3)
Case 4: Male, 60s. Departed Los Angeles on flight NZ1 on March 23 and arrived in Auckland on March 24
Case 5: Female, 20s. Departed Dubai on flight EK448 on March 19
Case 6: 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 and arrived in New Zealand on March 20.
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.

During his media conference yesterday, Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said one of the 12 people hospitalised across the country was at Whangārei Hospital.

Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield announced yesterday there was an increase of 76 cases in New Zealand. Photo / File

Repeated requests to the Northland District Health Board for information regarding the status or recovery of Northland's nine cases, either in isolation at home or at the hospital, were unsuccessful.

With 76 new cases, Bloomfield announced the national case tally was 589 as at 9am yesterday, which included 63 people who had recovered.

Bloomfield confirmed no other people had died due to Covid-19. New Zealand's only casualty so far - Anne Guenole, 73 - was confirmed on Sunday in Greymouth.

Of 455 cases, Bloomfield said 26 per cent were close contacts of existing cases and 10 cases were community transmission. The remainder related to travel. He said there had been an average of 1728 tests per day.

Regarding flu vaccines, Bloomfield said people over 65, frontline health workers, pregnant women and those with respiratory conditions would have priority for full vaccinations, and asked others to wait.

He said 18,000 vaccinations had been distributed and there were plenty of vaccinations in the country.

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

Also at the conference, Police Commissioner Mike Bush confirmed three people had been arrested for persistent lockdown rule breaches and there had been 4200 reports to the police's online form of other people not complying.

Police Commissioner Mike Bush. Photo / File

He said 1000 of the reports related to businesses while others were more general, such as reports of multiple people gathering in one area.

Despite this, Bush said the vast majority of people were complying well with lockdown conditions.

He also said police had initially seen a small rise in family violence, but in the last few days that had reduced slightly.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern also talked with media late yesterday and discussed reports of rising prices at New Zealand supermarkets.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the media late yesterday afternoon. Photo / File

While there had been no confirmed reports of price-gouging, Ardern confirmed there would be a website made for Kiwis to raise concerns about supermarket price rises during the lockdown.

Ardern asked for anyone with suspicions to send through any pictures or copies of their receipts to the website.

While she outlined businesses could legally increase prices with a good reason, Ardern said she was concerned that supermarkets had dropped specials and said it was a time to pass on deals to consumers.