Covid 19 coronavirus: Three gravely ill in ICU, cluster soars to 109

Three people are today fighting for their lives, gravely ill with Covid-19 in Intensive Care Units at two Auckland Hospitals.

Director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield today revealed three people are now in critical condition in North Shore and Middlemore Hospitals with Covid-19.

This is the gravest situation since the August outbreak started two weeks ago.

There are now 109 cases in the Auckland cluster which became the single largest community outbreak since Covid hit our country earlier this year.

Bloomfield said there were seven new cases of Covid-19 today, bringing the total to 129 active cases in New Zealand. All were related to the Auckland cluster, with no new cases from managed isolation facilities.

But of the eight people now needing hospital-level care across Auckland and Waikato, the three sickest patients were in ICU in North Shore and Middlemore Hospitals.

One of these cases is still under investigation by health authorities who are trying to work out how this man became infected with Covid.

The man turned up sick at the North Shore Hospital accident and emergency department on Friday night.

While genome sequencing had linked the gravely ill patient to the Auckland cluster, officials still couldn't map out the epidemiological link.

But all household and work contacts had so far tested negative, he said.

It remained a mystery where the man was infected with Covid-19.

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Today's other new cases included two people who fell ill after attending a church service and two more who were household contacts of previous cases.

Bloomfield said he did not have information on the remaining three cases.

There are now 160 people linked to the cluster who are in quarantine at Jet Park Hotel.