There are no new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand after the first weekend of level 2 rules.
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Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield and Police Commissioner Andrew Coster are providing an update on Covid-19 and level 2 rules.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield said there were also no further deaths to report.
The total number of confirmed and probable cases remains at 1499, of which 1149 are confirmed cases.
Two people are in hospital, one in Middlemore and one in Auckland hospital.
Bloomfield said 2570 tests were done yesterday and 230,718 tests have been done in total.
There was only one new case of Covid-19 reported in New Zealand yesterday.
World Health Assembly
Do Bloomfield said he’ll be virtually attending the World Health Assembly, which is being held tonight in Geneva, and he will lead New Zealand’s team present at the meeting. Health Minister David Clark will also be present.
“New Zealand is co-sponsoring a resolution on Covid-19, the purpose of the resolution is to agree, at a high level, the future areas of work to be undertaken on Covid-19 by member states and the World Health Organisation and other organisations,” Bloomfield said.
He said an example of what will be discussed is fair access to vaccinnes.
“At a time of public health crisis, it’s critical that countries come together and the Covid-19 resolution aims to support that,” Bloomfield said.
There will also be a review into how the pandemic was handled in the resolution.
Funerals and church gatherings
Bloomfield said the number of people allowed at funerals and church gatherings will be considered by Cabinet next Monday.
He reiterated the current limit is still 10.
Level 2 breaches
The number of reports to police on possible breaches under alert level 2 has significantly dropped from level 3, Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said.
Police are getting 200-250 reports a day, he said.
Under alert level 3 that number was between 700-1000 reports a day.
During the level 3 and 4 lockdown, police arrested more than 90 people and nearly 50 firearms were seized in a crackdown on organised crime.
In total, since level 2 began, police have had 983 reports of breaches.
Around 700 were related to business and 250 to mass gatherings, Coster said.
He said a number of the complaints received were related to retail businesses not having contact tracing systems.
Retailers have been able to reopen under a number of guidelines, but the transition wasn’t as smooth as some businesses would have liked.
Coster reiterated that retailers don’t need to have contact tracing for shoppers, but do have to have it for employees.
There were 30 breaches for house parties/gatherings on the weekend, 29 were given warnings, one was prosecuted.
In Dunedin, police broke up several parties in the city’s student quarter which were flouting level 2 rules on Saturday night. On the same night two males were seen lighting a couch on fire in the middle of Leith St.
Coster said that there has been no entry of properties using warrantless powers that were granted to police last week under urgent legislation from the government in Parliament.