Covid 19 coronavirus: NZ's Covid-19 death toll rises to 26

Director general of health Ashley Bloomfield has confirmed NZ's Covid-19 death toll has risen to 26. Photo / Mark Mitchell

New Zealand's official Covid-19 death toll is now 26.

Director general of Health Ashley Bloomfield has today confirmed the person who died at North Shore Hospital at the weekend has now been included in the number of official Covid-related deaths in the country.

Prior to this no one in New Zealand had died from Covid-19 since September 2020.

The latest death was a patient who was transferred from a managed isolation facility into hospital-level care for the treatment of a serious non-Covid related condition earlier this month before returning a positive result, a Ministry of Health statement said on Saturday.

"This person subsequently returned a positive result for Covid-19 following their admission. This positive result has been reported previously."

"On behalf of New Zealanders, I want to recognise this family's loss," Bloomfield said.

"This is a time for us all to offer our deep sympathy, while also respecting the family's privacy."

The Ministry of Health took three days to officially add the latest death to the Covid-19 death toll.

The last Covid-19 death was Tokoroa man Nigel Te Hiko, 54, who died in Waikato Hospital's ICU in September.

He is the youngest person to die from the virus and contracted it from his brother, Alan, who had worked at the Americold facility in Auckland where a cluster was identified. Alan also died from the illness.

The first coronavirus-linked death in New Zealand was on March 29 when West Coast woman Anne Guenole, 73, died after being admitted to Grey Base Hospital in Greymouth only days earlier with suspected influenza.

Earlier this month a man died at an Auckland managed isolation facility but the death was due to a medical event and not related to Covid-19.

Emergency services were called to the Crowne Plaza, in downtown Auckland, about 7.30pm after reports of an incident.

The majority of New Zealand's Covid-19 deaths have been elderly.