Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay today.
47 new confirmed, 14 new probable (+61) – total now 708
The increase is similar to yesterday (58) so even with more testing the case numbers are not growing faster.
2 of 14 in hospital are in intensive care, condition stable
Still just 1 death
82 recovered
Summary
| Total to date | New in last 24 hours | |
|---|---|---|
| Number of confirmed cases in New Zealand | 647 | 47 |
| Number of probable cases | 61 | 14 |
| Number of confirmed and probable cases | 708 | 61 |
| Number of cases in hospital | – | |
| Number of recovered cases | 82 | 8 |
| Number of deaths | 1 |
New case definition for diagnosis and testing will be issued today, still relying on clinical judgment
Anyone with respiratory symptoms regardless of travel history
Capacity 3,700 tests per day, but will increase from 8 to 10 labs by the beginning of next week.
Your NZ 
Alan Wilkinson
/ 1st April 2020Any testing stats to show ramp up or otherwise?
Griff.
/ 1st April 2020Capacity 3,700
last time I looked a few days ago it was 1800 a day.
Still need to ramp it up.
Should be like Iceland any one who wants a test gets one no questions asked . My nephew has symptoms similar to Covid and has had them for a week could be a cold but they refused to test him so we do not know for sure.
He was working as a security guard at Ronald McDonald house a few weeks ago so could have been exposed to anything . .
Alan Wilkinson
/ 1st April 2020I meant actual tests performed. Yes, as I said at the beginning I’ll believe Jacinda’s claim that anyone who needs a test can get one when she says anyone who wants a test can get one. We’ve been waiting a while for that.
Best wishes for your nephew and family. Not fair on them.
Griff.
/ 1st April 2020Thank you Alan
You be careful out there At your age even if you have no chronic conditions the risks are too high to contemplate .
Kitty Catkin
/ 1st April 2020I hope it is just a cold, and the odds are that it is.
I can see why the tests can’t be done for just anyone. Your nephew shouldn’t miss out because some hypochondriac hogs a test.
Kitty Catkin
/ 1st April 2020PDT, do you really think that someone with symptoms should not take precedence ? Why ? Do you also hope that Griff’s nephew DOESN”T just have a cold ? Again, why ?
Alan Wilkinson
/ 1st April 2020I was surprised today when I visited our little pharmacy. Town is dead quiet but apparently is packed with out of towners who have come here to self isolate. The pharmacy said the doctors are flat out busy and they are filling 700 prescriptions a day compared with 400 per day during the normal Xmas New Year crazy time. I suppose I should have guessed since our own places are full too. We had a flood of cancellations as the lockdown was announced and then bookings came in to sit it out.
Gezza
/ 1st April 2020Town is pretty quiet here today too, traffic-wise. Several people out doing their daily walks or jogging, either alone or with partners I imagine from their “bubble” & furry friends.
Drove from the Medical Centre after my 9 am flu jab to the nearby Supermarket. Queued for 30 minutes. The queue was shorter than my Saturday shopping excursion, but they were only letting two in at a time today. There were fewer staff on the checkouts.
Thought I might as well stock up for the long weekend now. Got everything I wanted – except mouthwash? Nonevleft atcall on the shelf. They even had 12 bags of sugar that I forgot to get last time (got Pam’s it was cheapest on special than Chelsea).
Plenty of bread, veges, frozen veges, frozen meals, fresh milk, bacon (cheaper cuts all gone, tho), eggs, loo paper, tissues,, paper towels, fresh fish. They even had four cans of Watties Spag & Sausages this time – I left two there for some other desperate connoisseur.
Kitty Catkin
/ 1st April 2020There was no queue to speak of at P & S, except for being delayed to have the trolley sprayed and wash our grubby mitts.
I didn’t look at fish and meat, but noticed a pallet of large bags of flour and sugar. No muffins in the bakery section for some reason. They had 1kg cheeses; Countdown sent me small blocks instead.
That was very decent of you to leave two tins of S & S. I rediscovered the comfort food of tinned spaghetti last year when P & S fiendishly hooked those of us who hadn’t eaten if for many years by offering Watties at 50c a tin. Oak is second best; Watties is the winner but I don’t want to pay the usual price for it. Tinned spag with a slice of cheese melted on top !!!
Duker
/ 1st April 2020“one when she says anyone who wants a test can get one”
Where is that happening elsewhere ?
NSW is saying that …. you have to have some symptons are are connected to those who are positive
https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/diseases/Pages/coronavirus-update.aspx
Alan Wilkinson
/ 1st April 2020I think you can get one and pay for it in the US.
Kitty Catkin
/ 1st April 2020Not much use to people outside the US….
Kitty Catkin
/ 1st April 2020Iceland’s population is less than 400,000.
Corky
/ 1st April 2020Dr Caroline McElnay is OK. I have clashed with her a few times over vaccinations. While she has zero tolerance for my views, she at least allows dissenters a chance to express a view, and she doesn’t get nasty as other health officials have a tendency to.
I wish her all the best. I’m sure she will do her best.
Duker
/ 1st April 2020Plutarch wrote” that Pyrrhus said after the second battle of the war, “If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined”
Someone should whisper that in the ear of those now aiming for eradication.
Gezza
/ 1st April 2020Ah … I’ve just spotted this.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/120731346/coronavirus-the-government-wants-to-eliminate-the-virus-completely-heres-how
& the briefing paper
https://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-NZ/52SCEP_EVI_96420_EP18/1b89a81ce848cbeb471631b68c878304e70b3dc2
Pete George
/ 1st April 2020Post on this: https://yournz.org/2020/04/01/strategic-shift-from-mitigation-to-suppression-of-covid-19/
Kitty Catkin
/ 1st April 2020Someone should send the story of Pyrrhus to the PM and her advisers.
If there are no more deaths, I wonder if the national house arrest will be lifted.
Kitty Catkin
/ 1st April 2020Plutarch isn’t 100% reliable, but the terrible price paid by Pyrrhus (or his army, rather) seems to be true.
Gezza
/ 1st April 2020Hence the famous phrase “Pyrrhic victory”.
A Pyrrhic victory is a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat. Someone who wins a Pyrrhic victory has also taken a heavy toll that negates any true sense of achievement or damages long-term progress.
Pete George
/ 1st April 2020Kitty Catkin
/ 1st April 2020Stating the blindingly bleedin’ obvious as usual.
She really ought to learn the art of not seeming to read from notes. It’s not at all hard to do, as teachers know. One glances down, memorises a phrase and says it looking at the audience.
Gezza
/ 1st April 2020Actually Kitty, imo, that is sumpthink that she does extremely well. She beats Trump & even Boris at reading off a script.
Although I will admit that her overuse of the phrase “That is why we are going hard & going early” at the outset of this panicky adventure nearly saw my telly screen smashed by a biffed shoe.
duperez
/ 1st April 2020I’ve watched a number of the Trump virus press conference performances as they’ve happened. He’s okay when he reads from the prepared script. ‘Okay’ meaning he has poor literacy skills when it comes to written material. Most of the stuff written down comes out though albeit in lumbering, stop start fashion.
He is far more comfortable in no-notes mode. He makes things up, fills in the gaps and his mouth goes for it with a fluency he can’t manage with reading. The exaggerations and superlatives flow there. At least once today he covered stuff in free-flight which was presented in an organised form later in the written speech. He did not have the clarity or the adeptness to recognise that and so staccato repetition of the same points came out.
There is no comparison between Ardern and Trump in such situations.
Complaints moving from her being a ‘part-time PM’ who’s always overseas and spends any time she is in the country doing photo ops with little kids, is totally out of her depth and should still be working packing fish’n’chips to ‘really ought to learn the art of not seeming to read from notes,’ is probably a triumph. Somehow though I think that’ll just be another failing to add to the others.