Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern during a post-Cabinet and Covid-19 coronavirus media update. Photo / File
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern during a post-Cabinet and Covid-19 coronavirus media update. Photo / File
The number of Covid-19 cases linked to a wedding in Bluff has more than doubled since yesterday to 22.
Ministry of Health details released on Wednesday showed 14 people had tested positive in the past 24 hours who had attended the wedding, which had taken place before large gatherings were banned in this country.
Eight other cases were confirmed yesterday.
The country's largest cluster remains Auckland girls' school Marist College, which has 50 confirmed and probable cases, with two new cases since yesterday.
Those identified as clusters are not necessarily new or recent cases, rather they have now been linked because they have been in the same place together.
Most of these clusters have a link to someone or several people who have travelled overseas recently.
Fourteen more cases have been linked to the Bluff wedding at Oyster Cover Restaurant and Bar on March 21.
It is understood about 80 guests from out of town attended the wedding, held when the Government was still permitting gatherings of up to 100 people.
Bluff Community Board chairman Ray Fife said he was shocked to hear the news and had not received formal notification of the cluster.
''I just hope those people who have been confirmed [as having the virus] make a full recovery.''
The cluster linked to St Patrick's Day celebrations on March 17 at Redoubt Bar in Matamata has also grown, with nine new cases taking the tally to 32.
The number of people in New Zealand confirmed with Covid-19 increased from 600 on Tuesday to 647 on Wednesday, with another 61 probable cases.
The cluster linked to the World Hereford Conference in Queenstown from March 9 to 13 has also increased, with three new cases taking the total to 27.
In its reporting the Ministry of Health has redefined a cluster to those with 10 or more cases, reducing the 14 listed on Tuesday to seven.
The Ministry has also scaled back the information it is providing, now describing the cluster linked to Redoubt Bar, Matamata, simply as "a bar" in Matamata.
On Tuesday the Ministry apologised after identifying people in two clusters who have contracted coronavirus in its data release.
Two Hutt City clusters were initially named after those infected and published on the ministry website, but were changed when the mistake was realised.
