New Zealand’s Ministry of Health has reported 19,542 new cases of covid-19 in the community and 24 more deaths today.

The ministry said eight people had died with covid-19 yesterday, while a further 16 people had died in the past three weeks.

“Local public health authorities have notified these deaths to the ministry in the past 24 hours as part of changes to the reporting of deaths announced last week. Delays to reporting can be associated with people dying with, rather than of covid-19, and covid being discovered after they have died,” the statement said.

The minister in charge of New Zealand’s covid-19 response has also now himself tested positive for the coronavirus.

Tweeting an image of a rapid antigen test, Chris Hipkins said: “The faint line seems out of keeping with how I currently feel!

“Day 7 of isolation and now it’s my turn. So I’ll be clocking off for another 7 days. Take care out there everyone.”

The faint line seems out of keeping with how I currently feel! Day 7 of isolation and now it’s my turn. So I’ll be clocking off for another 7 days. Take care out there everyone. pic.twitter.com/9wt8u7oe3o

— Chris Hipkins (@chrishipkins) March 15, 2022

Hipkins would normally have fronted today’s covid-19 update, but the media conference has been cancelled for today.

MPs testing positive
Hipkins is the latest of several MPs to have tested positive, including Environment Minister David Parker, Police Minister Poto Williams, opposition National Party leader Christopher Luxon and National MP Simon Bridges.

In the ministry’s report today, a person in their 40s was one of the people with Covid-19 whose death was reported today, while another person was in their 50s. The others include four in their 60s, three in their 70s, eight in their 80s and six in their 90s.

Eleven were women and twelve were men. The ministry said the average age was 79 and this had been increasing over the last week.

Eight of the 24 deaths reported today were people who died at aged residential care facilities.

The total number of deaths of people with covid-19 is now 141.

The rolling seven-day average of deaths over the past seven days is seven, up from four yesterday.

The ministry said the trend of increasing numbers of deaths was sadly not unexpected.

Higher numbers
“As has occurred with omicron overseas, while covid-19 cases are usually seen in higher numbers among younger people early in the outbreak, over time the more severe and fatal consequences of the virus fall disproportionately on our older and more vulnerable populations.”

There are 971 people in hospital, 21 of whom are in ICU. The average age of the people with covid-19 in hospital is 57.

There were also 17 new cases identified at the border.

Yesterday there were 21,616 new cases of the novel coronavirus in the community and two more deaths. There were 960 people in hospital.

Asia Pacific Report adds: Covid-19 modeller Professor Michael Plank was quoted in news reports as indicating the ethnicity of cases could increase the number of severe cases.

Māori make up about 17 percent of the 5 million population, but 20 percent of all cases, and 25 percent of those hospitalised, reports the New Zealand Herald.

Pasifika make up 8 percent of the population, but 21 percent of all cases and 38 percent of those hospitalised.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

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Tonga’s only suspected covid-19 case has tested positive when he took his third test today in Nuku’alofa.

The latest result came after the person was tested positive last week and tested negative on Monday this week.

The Health Ministry chief executive Dr Siale ‘Akau’ola said today the person had recorded a very weak positive result which likely reflected a historical infection.

He described the second positive result as “weaker than the first weak positive result”.

Dr ‘Akau’ola said the result showed what appeared to be a fragment of dead virus from old infections.

He said the ministry discussed the result with a team from the World Health Organisation (WHO) this morning.

He said there was a lot of “technicalities in the case”.

‘Not infectious’
“We believe the person is not infectious,” he said.

Dr ‘Akau’ola said the result meant there was no need to panic.

“It is not a new virus and the ministry is highly confident about it.

“The virus is shedding.”

He said the machines Tonga was using for the tests “are very sensitive”.

“Whenever they detected a fragment of a virus they will show it as positive”.

Dr ‘Akau’ola was speaking during a press conference this afternoon attended by the Prime Minister and a team of government officials.

The patient has been transferred to a special quarantine facility in Mu’a after he arrived at the kingdom from Christchurch last Wednesday on a flight carrying 215 people.

They had four contacts in New Zealand — all of whom returned negative tests.

Republished with permission.

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France has declared a health emergency in New Caledonia after covid-19 was detected in the community, RNZ Pacific reports.

The state of emergency was decreed by the French Prime Minister Jean Castex, effective immediately.

The decree, which is valid for a month, allows the authorities to impose restrictions, such as curfews or a lockdown — which the New Caledonian government had already imposed on Tuesday.

Southern province schools were also closed from Monday afternoon.

Today, a law is expected to pass in the French Senate to extend the health emergency in several French overseas territories, including New Caledonia and French Polynesia, to the middle of November.

A government statement said the pandemic had turned into a “health catastrophe” in New Caledonia because hospital capacity was limited, and people had made little use of the access to vaccines.

Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes reported today that there were 66 positive cases in the community after health authorities announced three on Monday night.

The government reported 16 covid-19 cases yesterday, but provincial and local authorities had warned the number was fast rising.

Medical experts in New Caledonia warned last month that the number of vaccinated people needed to be doubled within weeks, prompting the territorial government last Friday to make vaccinations compulsory for adults.

They also said the territory only had about one third of the number of nurses needed to be able to use the intensive care units available.

The virus is now said to be in wide circulation, and yesterday the public was told that in two to three weeks the hospitals would be full.

Until the latest outbreak on Monday, New Caledonia had recorded fewer than 140 covid-19 cases and there had been no fatality.

Since March 2020, the borders have been closed and people allowed to enter have had to spend two weeks in government-run isolation facilities.

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The 21-year-old nurse is a flatmate of a man who worked with the first case to be discovered and announced yesterday. She was fully vaccinated, the Ministry of Health said earlier.

Auckland Hospital had written to all staff asking them to stay home if unwell, to wear masks and to restrict their movement around the central city buildings as much as possible.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said there had not been any cases from New South Wales at Auckland Hospital.

Dr Bloomfield said there was no suggestion that the nurse worked in any other health facilities.

There are two new cases of covid-19 in the community, in addition to the four announced earlier today.

Dr Bloomfield said that brought the total number of community cases to seven.

All case friends
He said the two new cases were linked to the current outbreak and were in Auckland. They are friends with the four cases reported this morning.

Dr Bloomfield said there were also three cases in managed isolation.

The other four cases found earlier today include a work colleague of the case found yesterday, who is a 20-year-old man. He has three flatmates — including the Auckland Hospital nurse — and has been working in recent days.

There is also a 25-year-old teacher at Avondale College and a 29-year-old man.

The two more recent cases found today include a 21-year-old woman and 19-year-old man who both live in Auckland and are linked to the current cases as friends.

The wife of the original case has returned a second negative test.

Dr Bloomfield said contact tracing capacity had been increased, and with the latest cases being active young people in their 20s, there were expected to be many locations of interest.

Locations updating
Those locations would be constantly updated as more information comes to hand, he said.

Dr Bloomfield said calls to Healthline should be restricted to seeking a test.

On genome sequencing, Prime Minister Ardern said overnight it has been confirmed that the outbreak was the delta variant, and that it was linked to the NSW outbreak.

She said only three positive cases had arrived into MIQ from Sydney since 1 July. One on August 9 on their day 1 test, and two on August 14 on their day three test.

These three cases were being genome sequenced right now, as part of the usual processes, Ardern said.

Ardern said everyone who came from NSW and Queensland was compliant with the travel restrictions.

She said despite that, the government was preparing to contact all cases who had arrived from Australia should they find the community case was not linked to the three positive cases from MIQ.

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Papua New Guinea’s covid-19 cases have jumped to more than 1000, including the National Pandemic Controller and members of his family.

Eight new covid-19 cases were reported in the country over the weekend taking the country’s number of infections to 1056.

The latest cases were reported in East New Britain, Madang and in the National Capital District.

Ages ranged from an infant of five months old to a 43-year-old woman.

The eight new infections follow 59 positive results reported on Friday.

Ten cases out of the total have resulted in fatalities while 200 people are currently in isolation.

Seventeen provinces, including the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (AROB,) have reported covid cases.

Pandemic controller has covid-19
PNG’s Pandemic Response Controller David Manning is one of those people who have tested positive for the coronavirus.

Two members of Manning’s family have also tested positive and are in isolation.

Manning said his covid results were confirmed over the weekend.

He said given the nature of his job and with the high level of exposure to the infection it was bound to happen sooner or later.

Manning said he had always been impressing upon citizens the need for covid-19 tests so that they could know their status and protect their family.

“I have been telling people to be tested for covid-19 and as the Controller I had to take the test. I am glad I did, so I am now taking measures to protect my family.

“I urge everyone to go to your nearest health centre and get tested. It is by knowing your status you can then take steps to protect your loved ones, especially the most vulnerable including the old and those with existing medical conditions,” Manning said.

Covid ‘not a death sentence’
He told the public not to be be afraid, saying although covid-19 was five times worse than getting the normal flu, testing positive for the coronavirus was not a death sentence.

“Statistics have indicated most people have recovered from covid-19.”

Meanwhile, Manning expressed serious concerns about the low number of covid-19 tests being done in PNG.

“Our covid-19 response is more than 12 months in place but we have only tested about 50,000 people. This is roughly 0.5 percent of the PNG population.

“I want to see more tests being done around the country so that we can have a fair idea of where the pandemic is in PNG and take measures to mitigate and contain it.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

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