Two new cases in Hawke’s Bay are linked to the Ruby Princess cruise ship, bringing the total in that cluster to 18, according to the Ministry of Health website. In Australia alone, over 660 passengers from that fated cruise have tested positive and 16 have died.
A further new case in HB is currently under investigation to trace the source (but is unconnected to the recent EIT or Flaxmere supermarket cases), bringing our regional total to 41.
Hawke’s Bay Covid-19 Case Numbers
| 13 April | Hastings | Napier | CHB | Wairoa | Total |
| New cases | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Total cases | 14 | 24 | 0 | 3 | 41 |
| Hospitalisations | 0 | ||||
| Recovered | 3 | 7 | 10 | ||
| Number of tests in HB | 2,128
(as of 12 Apr) |
Jacinda Ardern says going into this week, Level 4 will feel “hard and repetitive” but now is not the time to deviate – “we can’t squander a first-half lead.” The government will be releasing more economic details this week and, in preparation for transitioning down, sector guidelines for operating under alert levels 3 and 2.
Easter shout-out to Jacinda – the international praise keeps rolling in for her handling of the corona crisis. The Spinoff’s daily live blog has summaries and links to articles in the US and UK media, from Arwa Mahdawi’s column in The Guardian and Mark Sumner in The Daily Kos to Tony Blair’s former press secretary Alastair Campbell’s analysis in The Independent.
Sumner points out that testing rates per population in NZ are greater than in South Korea (the ‘gold standard’ for testing), nearly double that of the US and at least thrice the testing rate of the UK. But it’s not enough yet, say director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield, who wants testing numbers across the country to step up over the next two weeks to ensure there are no cases of community transmission that have been missed. He says that the government will be looking closely at the testing in each region, “seeing how we can lift that”.
| 13 April | New Zealand | Global |
| New cases | 19
(1,160 tested) | 75,200 |
| Total cases | 1,349
(62,827 tests) | 1.85 million |
| Hospitalisations | 15
(4 in ICU) | |
| Deaths | 5 | 114,000 |
| Recovered | 546 | 422,000 |
Source: Ministry of Health, Hawke’s Bay DHB, and John Hopkins University.