Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield [Source: RNZ]
Work on determining whether community transmission of COVID-19 in New Zealand is still ongoing after 14 new cases of illness were confirmed today.
At a media conference in Wellington this afternoon, Ministry of Health Director-General Dr Ashley Bloomfield said five of the new cases were in Auckland, one in Northland, one in Canterbury, two in New Plymouth, two in Waikato, one in Tauranga, one in Coromandel and one in Dunedin. It brings the total number to 66.
They are all in self-isolation and their close contacts have also been identified and told to self-isolate.
Eleven have a history of international travel, while one is a close contact of a confirmed case.
Two were attendees at the World Hereford Conference in Queenstown from March 9-13 and the cases were being linked with international travel, and not due to community transmission.
Just over 1200 tests were carried out yesterday, bringing the total to 6000.
Yesterday, 13 new cases were confirmed, two of which could not be immediately linked with international travel. Dr Bloomfield said work was still ongoing to determine whether these should be classified as cases of community transmission.
