The Covid resurgence cluster is now at 29 confirmed cases, with one further unlinked case. Chris McDowall presents the latest information in visual form.
With thanks to the Science Media Centre.
Information about the resurgence of confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand is changing rapidly. These posts collate the most recent statistics and presents them as charts and maps. The Ministry of Health typically publishes data updates in the early afternoon, which describe the situation at 9am on the day of release.
This afternoon’s Ministry of Health figures report that there are 49 active Covid-19 cases, which is an increase of 13 since yesterday. All of these new cases are instances of community transmission. There are no reports of people recovering in the last 24 hours. There is one person in hospital, which is the same number as yesterday.
This graphic shows the big picture stretching back to late February. A slow, then rapid rise in active cases (purple), before a steady decline. For several weeks through late May and June there were no active cases at all. Since mid-June when more flights from overseas started arriving, there has been a small number of active cases in managed isolation and quarantine. Then Tuesday night happened.
Look at the rightmost part of the chart and note the little step up. That bump is the resurgence cluster.
Let’s zoom in on the last couple of months.
This bar chart shows all confirmed and probable Covid-19 cases in New Zealand since the start of June.
The three pink bars at the far right of the chart represent the resurgence cluster. These people caught the virus through community transmission and they are spread across four district health boards. The small burgundy bar at the rightmost edge of the chart represents the most recently reported case, which has not yet been linked to the others in the cluster.
This map summarises the locations of active Covid-19 cases acquired through community transmission. There are four district health boards with active cases. Counties Manukau has the most with 18, up from 13 yesterday. Waitematā and Auckland both have five cases, up from three and one respectively. The new Tokoroa cases bring Waikato to two cases.
The Ministry of Health has identified a series of places that infected individuals visited in recent days. This map shows where these place are. Note how they are spread across region and constitute a range of community spaces: schools, workplaces, shops and places of worship. If you have recently visited one of these places, please refer to the NZ government Covid-19 information website for details on what to do.
Yesterday we noted that the testing chart would likely see a large uptick today. Here is that spike. Yesterday 15,703 Covid-19 tests were processed, up from 6,006 reported yesterday. This far exceeds the previous record of 10,436 processed tests on June 24. Expect to see this number stay high over coming days.
Given the huge volume of tests, the health minister, Chris Hipkins, urged people in Auckland to get tested only if they are exhibiting symptoms.