Covid 19 coronavirus: Two new infection clusters as cases climb past 1000

Two new significant clusters of coronavirus have been announced, in Auckland and Christchurch - and it's not clear where the original infections came from.

The Auckland cluster has 13 cases - four of them confirmed in the past day. Ten people are in the Christchurch cluster.Both are of "unknown origin", according to the Ministry of Health's website.

Only information about "significant" clusters of 10 or more people is being published. There are 12 such clusters in New Zealand.

Theymay not be new or recent cases, but have been linked because they have been in the same place.

The country's biggest cluster is linked to Marist College, an Auckland girls' high school. That cluster has 66 cases, up six from Saturday.

The next-biggest is linked to a wedding in Bluff, and has three new cases since yesterday. There are now 58 cases associated with the March 21 wedding, held before large gatherings were banned. And 56 cases are associated with a St Patrick's Day celebration at the Redoubt Bar in Matamata, Waikato.

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Director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield today announced 89 new cases of Covid-19, with 48 confirmed and 41 probable.

That brings New Zealand's total cases to 1039. However 156 of those people have recovered.

Fifteen people are in hospital, including three in intensive care, and two are in a critical condition.

He said only about 1 per cent of cases were confirmed as coming from community transmission but 18 per cent were still being investigated - many of those may end up being via community transmission as well.

Cases are still not increasing exponentially, which Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today described as "a good thing" although she did not want to draw conclusions too soon.

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