Today there were 18 new coronavirus cases in New Zealand, bringing the national total to 1330.
Those cases were made up of 14 new confirmed cases and four new probable cases.
There are 14 people in hospitals across the country with Covid-19, five of those people are in intensive care. One of those five people is in a critical condition in Dunedin Hospital.
Now, 471 people have recovered from Covid-19 in New Zealand, up 49 on yesterday.
Four people have died. They were a woman in her 70s on the West Coast, a woman in her 90s in Christchurch, a man in his 70s in Christchurch and a man in his 80s in Wellington.
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield gave an update on the numbers at a media conference today, and said there were still 13 main clusters being investigated.
There are three Covid-19 clusters in aged care facilities across New Zealand, Dr Bloomfield said. Two clusters are in Christchurch and one is in Waikato.
"We know from international reports and of course our experience here with the three deaths over the last three days that this is a group that is particularly vulnerable to a poor outcome if they do get infected with this virus," Dr Bloomfield said.
Yesterday, Dr Bloomfield wrote to District Health Board chief executives asking them to systematically address the readiness of all aged residential care providers in their area and to provide support and assistance where necessary.
He said DHBs will look at plans and procedures in place at aged care facilities, including personal protective equipment (PPE) stocks and that it's used correctly.
The strongest link to people having Covid-19 is close contacts of existing cases at 47 per cent, while 40 per cent are linked to overseas travel, two per cent are confirmed as community transmission and 11 per cent are still under investigation.
Yesterday 2421 tests for Covid-19 were carried out. The number was slightly lower than recent days because of the Easter break. The average number of tests carried out over seven days was 3523.
The total number of tests undertaken in New Zealand is 61,167.
"It's Easter Sunday, so think particularly about oldest friends and whānau," Dr Bloomfield said.
"We know Easter can be a hard time for a lot of people who may not be around friends or family at a time when we are usually very close to our friends and family so, if you can this Easter Sunday, do reach out across the generations."
"This is a collective effort and we will get through this if we continue to support each other."
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