New Zealand / Covid 19

Covid-19: 13 new cases reported on Saturday

14:46 pm on 18 April 2020

There are 13 new cases of Covid-19 today, made up of eight confirmed, and five probable cases.

Photo: Supplied

The total number of cases in New Zealand is now 1422.

There are now 867 reported cases of Covid-19 who have recovered - an increase of 51 on yesterday.

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The government did not hold its usual media conference today, instead issuing a written statement with the latest update.

It also confirmed there are no further deaths to report, but that 20 people are in hospital with Covid-19.

Three people are in ICU, one in Middlemore Hospital, one in Dunedin Hospital in a critical condition, and one in North Shore hospital in a critical condition.

The number of significant clusters remains at 16, and seven more cases have been connected to clusters.

Yesterday there was a record number of tests, with 4677 tests processed, taking the seven day rolling average to 2905.

Targeted testing to determine whether there was any undetected community transmission has taken place in Queenstown, Waikato, Canterbury and is taking place in Auckland today.

All of the tests taken at Pak n Save Queenstown have come back negative.

In Waikato, 308 people were tested across Otorohanga, Hamilton, Matamata, Cambridge and Te Awamutu and all of these tests were negative.

All of the tests processed so far from community testing in Canterbury have also come back negative for Covid-19.

Testing began at two supermarkets in Auckland this morning, with the aim of collecting 150 swabs at each site.

Today's number of new cases is only a slight increase after days of decline, with just eight new cases announced yesterday.

Cabinet will decide on Monday whether the country is ready to move out of level 4 lockdown and will be basing that decision on the most up to date data and information.

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