New Zealand has 36 new confirmed cases of coronavirus today. This takes the total number of cases in this country to 102. Over half of them are directly linked to overseas travel - people who have returned to New Zealand recently.
Details about the latest tranche of patients who have tested positive for the coronavirus have been released by the Ministry of Health.
There were 36 new cases of Covid-19 confirmed today, with their whereabouts and travel history now published on the Ministry of Health's website.
Twenty-one of them are in Auckland, including a young boy and two teenagers. There are three new cases in Nelson, three in Wellington, two in Canterbury and one each in Upper Hutt, Kapiti Coast, Marlborough, Tasman, Manawatu, Waikato, and Dunedin.
Ten of the cases of Covid-19 are people in their 20s, one in their 30s, six in their 40s, eight in their 50s, five in their 60s and three cases aged over 70, in the Waikato.
New Zealand has a total of 102 confirmed cases but Director-general of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield says he expects to see more cases each day, with 1100-1500 lab tests carried out daily.
Over half of today's 36 new cases were directly linked to overseas travel - people who have returned to New Zealand recently, including from the United States, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Qatar and Dubai.
Most of the remainder are close contacts of previously confirmed cases or associated with events where there were confirmed cases, such as the Hereford cattle conference in Queenstown earlier this month.
There still remain two cases where it's not clear where the infection came from - they are in Auckland and Wairarapa. These are thought to be cases of community transmission.
The Prime Minister today announced that the entire country would go into lockdown to try to stop the further spread of Covid-19.
That will see the entire country in lockdown, apart from essential services such as healthcare and supermarkets, Jacinda Ardern said. Most people will need to stay home and travel will be severely limited.
"I have a very keen sense of the magnitude of this moment in New Zealand's history and we did not take this decision lightly," Ardern said of the move to Alert Level 4.
"But we all absolutely believe this is the right thing to do. If community transmission takes off in New Zealand the number of cases will double every five days.
"If that happens unchecked, our health system will be inundated, and thousands of New Zealanders will die."
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced New Zealand will go into lockdown at 11.59pm on Wednesday. Photo / Mark Mitchell
36 NEW CASES: WHAT FLIGHTS WERE THEY ON?
The Ministry of Health is publishing travel details of patients with confirmed Covid-19 infection as they become available and is contact tracing for relevant flights. These are the latest details of today's confirmed cases - for the travel history of all 102 cases
*Hong Kong to Auckland on 13 March – flight CX2191 *Dubai to Auckland on 15 March – flight EK448 *Wellington to Auckland on 15 March – flight JQ256 *LA to New Zealand on 15 March – flight NZ1 *San Francisco to Auckland on 17 March – flight NZ07 *Singapore to Christchurch on 18 March – flight SQ297 *LA to Auckland on 18 March – flight NZ05 *Doha to Auckland on 18 March – flight QR920 *Dubai to Auckland on 18 March – flight EK0448 *Sydney to Auckland on 18 March – flight QF143 *Auckland to Blenheim on 18 March – flight NZ8205 *Sydney to Wellington on 19 March – flight NZ842 *Auckland to Dunedin on 19 March – flight JQ285 *Kuala Lumpur to Auckland on 19 March – flight MH0133 *Dubai to Auckland on 19 March – flight EK448 *Doha to Auckland on 22 March – flight QR920
