Director of health Ashley Bloomfield, who, on most days, reads the numbers that will define how the rest of this year plays out (Illustration: Simon Chesterman)
Director of health Ashley Bloomfield, who, on most days, reads the numbers that will define how the rest of this year plays out (Illustration: Simon Chesterman)

SocietyMay 1, 2020

Covid-19: New Zealand cases mapped and charted, May 1

Contributing writer
Director of health Ashley Bloomfield, who, on most days, reads the numbers that will define how the rest of this year plays out (Illustration: Simon Chesterman)
Director of health Ashley Bloomfield, who, on most days, reads the numbers that will define how the rest of this year plays out (Illustration: Simon Chesterman)

The latest in our series of charts, graphics and data visualisations by Chris McDowall. David Garcia worked with Chris to create today’s charts.

This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff Members, with support from the Science Media Centre. 

These posts collate the most recent statistics and present 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. These data visualisations are interactive so use your mouse or thumb to hover over each graph for more detail.

This afternoon’s Ministry of Health figures report that the total number of confirmed and probable Covid-19 cases increased by two to 1,479 (1,132 confirmed and 347 probable). This is the 13th consecutive day of single-digit increases. A total of 1,252 people have recovered which is an increase of 11 since yesterday. There were no further deaths overnight.

The number of significant clusters with 10 or more cases remains at 16, although one of these clusters was closed overnight. There are six people in hospital which is an decrease of one since yesterday. For the third day running, there are no known Covid-19 cases in intensive care units.

Yesterday, 5,328 tests were processed. The ministry reported averaging 4,523 Covid-19 lab tests per day during the week ending April 30. A total of 139,898 lab tests have been conducted since January 22. There are 59,266 test supplies in stock, down from 67,542 yesterday.

This chart compares active and recovered cases. Active cases are confirmed or probable cases of Covid-19 where the person has neither recovered nor died. Recovered cases are people who were once an active case, but are at least 10 days since onset and have not exhibited any symptoms for 48 hours.

The overall downward trend of active case counts that started around April 8 continues. Note how the blue curve is levelling off, while the purple bars continue to decline. This means there are very few new cases being reported while existing cases steadily recover.

This table shows the number of active cases, recovered people and deaths in each area. Whanganui, Wairarapa, Tairāwhiti and West Coast all have no active cases. The largest number of active cases are in Canterbury (36), Waikato (34), Waitamatā (34) and Auckland (23).

You can sort the table’s rows by clicking on the columns titles.

The symbol map shows confirmed and probable Covid-19 cases arranged by district health board. In keeping with the relatively small number of new cases, there is minimal change in regional counts. Waitematā (up one to 224), Southern (no change at 216), Waikato (no change at 186) and Auckland (up two to 175) remain the four district health boards with the largest number of active cases.

There are 15 significant clusters under investigation by the Ministry of Health and one closed cluster. Once again, no new cases were reported in any cluster overnight.

For the first time the ministry announced that they had closed a cluster. This was the Wellington Wedding cluster. The ministry anticipates closing more clusters over the next few days.

Closing a cluster signifies that ministry is confident there is no longer transmission of the virus within, or associated with the cluster. A cluster can be closed after 28 consecutive days pass since the most recent onset date of a reported case. This period corresponds to two incubation periods for the virus.

This chart shows the number of active, recovered and deaths associated with each cluster. The ministry has not released formal counts associating deceased persons with clusters. Instead, we compiled these numbers from ministry media releases about each case.

In most clusters, the number of recovered cases outweighs the number of active cases. Three clusters buck this trend. Both Auckland residential care facilities and the Rosewood aged care cluster in Christchurch all have more active than recovered cases.

More Reading

    This chart shows cases by the date they were first entered into EpiSurv, ESR’s public health surveillance system. Note that the number of cases reported on a particular date may not match the number of cases reported in the last 24 hours. This is because the number of confirmed and probable cases reported in the last 24 hours includes cases that were entered on an earlier date as “under investigation” or “suspected” whose status has now been changed to confirmed or probable.

    Keep going!