There has been a second death from COVID-19 in New Zealand, the Ministry of Health’s Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay has confirmed.

The woman was in her nineties and located at Burwood hospital in Christchurch.

She was one of the 20 residents transferred from Rosewood rest home to Burwood hospital earlier in the week.

Those residents were on a ward at the hospital to allow them to isolate together in a group bubble.

The decision to move the residents came after a cluster broke out at the rest home facility.

“The woman who sadly died had experienced a number of common age-related health conditions prior to her testing positive to COVID-19 this week,” Dr McElnay.

“Because of the current alert level 4 no family members were able to visit the woman in hospital in recent days and were not able to be present when she passed away.

However hospital staff were able to provide her with comfort and support and we thank them for that.”

The group are being managed as if they have COVID-19, with some being symptomatic.

Greymouth woman Anne Guenole, aged in her 70s, was the country’s first death.

She returned a positive test for COVID-19 after initially being diagnosed with influenza, complicated by an underlying health condition.

On top of the death, New Zealand has recorded 44 new cases of the virus. That is made up of 23 confirmed cases and 21 probable cases.

Fourteen of the new 44 cases are linked to clusters. The country now has 1283 cases.

There are now 373 people who have recovered, an increase of 56 on Thursday. Sixteen people are in hospital, including four in ICU. Two of those are critical.

For the cases the Ministry has information on, there is a strong link to overseas travel (40 percent) or confirmed cases in New Zealand (44 percent).

Community transmission is at two percent.