While there were some fist pumps yesterday as New Zealand recorded zero new cases of Covid-19, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield warns infection numbers need to stay low and be traceable before a move to Alert Level 2.
Yesterday, there were no new cases of Covid-19 recorded for the first time in more than six weeks. There were also no further deaths.
The national total of Covid-19 cases, made up of both confirmed and probably cases, is 1487, with the death toll at 20.
Dr Bloomfield told TVNZ1's Breakfast this morning it was "a nice surprise" to get the update yesterday morning which showed just one previously probable Covid-19 case had been reclassified as confirmed.
"It's very satisfying to know that the work that has been put in over many weeks by everybody has paid off and to get to that zero number, you know, I think there were a few fist pumps around the place."
However, he said it was later this week where New Zealand will get a feel for the impact for Level 3 due to the infection's incubation period.
Monday’s update was provided by Dr Ashley Bloomfield, Director-General of Health. (Source: Other)
Dr Bloomfield said some more zeros through the later part of this week would be a good indication of Level 3 working.
Next Monday Cabinet will meet to discuss New Zealand's next move, but to feel confident moving to Alert Level 2 Dr Bloomfield said he will be looking for low Covid-19 numbers and cases that can be tracked to existing cases.
"We'll be worried if we see cases spring up that we can't explain where they came from, so that will be one of the key pieces of information."
Dr Bloomfield also said he, as well as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, will be looking to see how people and businesses are complying with the current restrictions, including physical distancing.
"The key thing is more what is the nature of the cases? Are they linked to our existing cases we know or existing clusters? Or the thing we are really wary of is whether there is cases popping up that we hadn't expected or settings or places that we didn't really know about because that will raise a yellow flag and we'll have to go and really quickly investigate those.
"We don't want to lose the weeks of the hard work we have put in. It's been a fantastic effort but it's not full time yet and so we can't celebrate too soon, and we've just got to keep our foot on the pedal."
He says this is just "a moment in time" and not the end of the fight. (Source: Other)
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