Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says the Ministry of Health will be changing how it reports Covid-19-related deaths from today.
Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas
Dr Bloomfield made the announcement at today's daily briefing.
Deaths will automatically be reported if the person died within 28 days of a positive test result, the same system many countries are using around the world, including in the UK.
More details will also be included on deaths, and this may include some deaths reported outside of the 28-day window:
- Where Covid-19 is the clear cause of death (to date there are 34 deaths in this category).
- Where a person is found to have had Covid-19 when they died but it was not the cause of death (there are 2 deaths so far in this category).
- When a person is known to have had Covid-19 when they died but their cause of death is not known (there are currently 48 deaths in this category).
With the new reporting, over the past two weeks there have been an additional nine deaths that have not yet been announced and the total number of Covid-19 deaths is therefore 91.
Of the nine deaths, the latest occurred at North Shore Hospital yesterday.
The remaining eight all died in the past fortnight: four in late February and four in March. Seven of the deaths were in Auckland and one in Waikato. One was in their 60s; three in their 70s; two in their 80s; one in their 90s and one over 100 years of age.
"Each one of these deaths represents a person and a whānau and community that is grieving, so I want to just acknowledge that and pass on my condolences," Dr Bloomfield said.
New Zealand's Covid-19 death rate remains very low compared with other countries, he said.
