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)

SocietyApril 15, 2020

Covid-19: New Zealand cases mapped and charted, April 15

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 helped create today’s charts.

This work is entirely funded by the generosity of The Spinoff Members

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 – use your mouse or thumb to hover over each graph for more detail.

Note for users of The Spinoff app: if the charts below are not appearing, please update your app to the latest version.

This afternoon’s Ministry of Health figures report that the total number of confirmed and probable Covid-19 cases stands at 1,386 (1,078 confirmed and 308 probable). A total of 728 people have recovered, an increase of 100 since yesterday. There were six new confirmed cases reported in the last 24 hours and 14 new probable cases. No further deaths have been reported.

The number of significant clusters with 10 or more cases increased by one to 16. There are 13 people in hospital, which is two fewer than yesterday. There are now three people in intensive care units – one each in Middlemore, Dunedin and North Shore hospitals. The Dunedin patient remains in a critical condition. The person in North Shore hospital is freshly reported to be in a critical condition.

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.

For the first time, the statistics show more recovered than active cases. The number of active cases dropped again, from 729 to 649 this morning. The downward trend that started around April 8 continues.

Yesterday, 2,100 tests were processed. This is a more than during the Easter period, but still below last week’s totals, which ranged between 3,500 and 4,500. The ministry reported averaging 2,761 Covid-19 lab tests per day during the week ending April 14. A total of 66,499 lab tests have been conducted since January 22. There are 71,693 test supplies in stock, up from 70,826 yesterday.

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. Southern (213), Waitematā (201), Auckland (182) and Waikato (179) remain the four district health boards with the largest number of active cases. The largest increase in cases were in Canterbury, up five to 144, and Counties Manukau, up four to 107.

There are 16 significant clusters under investigation by the Ministry of Health, an increase of one overnight. A significant Covid-19 cluster is when there are 10 or more cases connected through transmission and who are not all part of the same household. The cluster count includes both confirmed and probable cases.

The new cluster is an aged residential care facility in Auckland, where the number of cases doubled from five to ten overnight.

This chart shows cases according to their original “date of report” rather than the “date the case was classified as confirmed/probable”. This is a subtle but important distinction as there is sometimes a lag between a “potential” case getting updated to “probable” or “confirmed”, yet the date of report stays the same.

The same broad trend that we see in the other charts is evident here. There is a downward trend in the number of cases. Even with a few potential cases getting upgraded to probable or confirmed in recent days, these numbers look promising.

More Reading

    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 which were entered on an earlier date as “under investigation” or “suspected” whose status has now been changed to confirmed or probable.

    Keep going!