The daily @AshBloomfield show has a sad start with the announcement of 4 new deaths. #Covid19
Man in 90s, a man in 80s, second man in 90s from the Rosewood cluster at Burwood and a man in Wellington associated to overseas travel.

Privacy is requested currently.
The Wellington man was admitted to hospital on the 22/3 and has been unwell and quite sick in ICU for a while.
All four had underlying conditions. #Covid19

Feedback from the family of a Rosewood resident who has passed has been full of praise of the nursing staff, their care of patients and using Skype to keep family and patients connected.
I'm feeling quite emotional about this. #Covid19

Bloody @1NewsNZ must have come into this press conference late because we have not heard all the stats we normally hear. Tsk tsk. #Covid19

The PM will be doing a post-Cabinet press conference at 4pm. #Covid19

Dr Bloomfield has commissioned a report into the Aged Care Sector over #Covid19.

17 new cases, 8 confirmed, 9 probable.
Recovered cases dominate.
1366 cases. 15 people in hospital, 3 in ICU. Person in Dunedin ICU remains critical.

The testing yesterday was lower - symptomatic of a holiday weekend.

Dr Bloomfield said Australia's Dr Murphy also commented on lower testing over Easter in Australia and fewer people presenting to GPs with respiratory conditions. #Covid19

A journalist just said he had reports of Rosewood residents at Burwood being "left alone to die". Dr Bloomfield refuted that, citing the feedback from a resident's family he read earlier. 1/3 of the normal annual NZ death toll are rest home residents in palliative care. #Covid19

Rosewood residents due to their underlying health issues and dementia are extremely at risk from succumbing to #Covid19. Let's not mince words about this.

Every day journalists ask about if it is acceptable or not for nurses being told not to wear masks. Every day Dr Bloomfield talks about the guidelines provided to DHBs and how we have enough PPE. Every day he asks for info of specific instances so he can look into it. #Covid19

Question asking if we are past the peak? Dr Bloomfield says he thinks we are past the peak at Level 4 lockdown. But contact tracing and infection source is the key info required. Wants to get down to one or two asap. #Covid19

Key thing is are we finding random infections not linked to current clusters or cases? Dr Bloomfield thinks this is really important to know.
Wants more people to be tested. #Covid19

The Ruby Princess cluster grew by two yesterday. A tour guide and someone from their household both based in Wellington.
The private function cluster in Auckland was a stag party. #Covid19

Contact tracing and surveillance testing has been identified as key by Prof Sir David Skegg as key components moving out of Level 4 to contain and eradicate #Covid19 otherwise the government is playing Russian roulette.

Question about why Rosewood residents family members can not don full PPE to visit dying family members.
Hello: Alert Level 4!!!
I recognise this is devastating for families. But are they planning on exposing themselves and possibly spreading #Covid19 to further people?

This policy is being reviewed for how it will work at Alert Level 3, but people need to recognise why we had to have a blanket policy at Alert Level 4 and that is to stamp out new infections and eradicate #Covid19.

The first tweet of this thread today was a very sad tweet.

So let's end today's 1pm #Covid19 thread with the positive:

82 more people are declared recovered today, bring the recovery total to 628!!!

I'll be back for the PM's post-Cabinet press conference at 4pm.