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 19, 2020

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

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 1,431 (1,098 confirmed and 333 probable). A total of 912 people have recovered, an increase of 45 since yesterday. There were four new confirmed cases reported in the last 24 hours and five new probable cases. Ashley Bloomfield, the director general of health, announced that the death in Invercargill last Tuesday has now been “confirmed as Covid-19 related”.

The number of significant clusters with 10 or more cases remains at 16. There are 18 people in hospital which is two fewer than yesterday. There are three people in intensive care units, one each in Middlemore, Dunedin and North Shore hospitals. The Dunedin and North Shore patients remain in critical condition.

Yesterday, 4,146 tests were processed. The ministry reported averaging 3,151 Covid-19 lab tests per day during the week ending April 18. A total of 83,224 lab tests have been conducted since January 22. There are 91,059 test supplies in stock — down from 94,820 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.

For the fifth day, Ministry of Health statistics show more recovered than active cases. The number of active cases dropped again, from 544 to 507 this morning. The overall downward trend of active case counts that started around April 8 continues.

I wrote the first of these daily updates nearly three weeks ago, on March 31. I just reviewed the data and noticed that there were 572 active cases on that day. It feels good to write these words from the other side of the curve.

Having said that, please continue to observe alert level four procedures. The numbers are promising, but the risks persist.

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 (no change 216), Waitematā (up five to 211), Auckland (no change at 185) and Waikato (up one to 184) remain the four district health boards with the largest number of active cases.

There are 16 significant clusters under investigation by the Ministry of Health, the same as yesterday. Four clusters grew overnight. The Marist College cluster in Auckland grew by one case to 93. The Rosewood aged residential care facility in Christchurch increased by three cases to 43. The World Hereford Conference in Queenstown grew by four cases to 39. Finally, one of the Auckland aged residential care facility clusters increased by three cases to 24.

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.

More Reading

    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.

    Keep going!