Another 50 cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed in New Zealand as of 9.30am today (March 26).

Forty-seven cases have been confirmed by testing, and three more are ‘probable’ cases. Probable cases are now being included in the total number provided by the Ministry of Health.

The 50 new cases are “all around the country,” director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said. Details of those individual cases were not immediately available. 

Contract tracing is now underway for the new cases. 

The combined total number of confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases in New Zealand to date is now at 205.

There are six people hospitalised with COVID-19 currently, Ashley said: “All [are] in a stable condition: three are in Wellington Regional Hospital, one in Rotorua, and two in Waikato. None in the intensive care units.”

Twenty two people have now recovered from COVID-19 in New Zealand, and three who were previously in hospital were discharged from hospital yesterday. 

Cases would continue to rise in the short term, Ashley warned. 

“I would say that even as we go into alert level 4 we will continue to see a rise in cases for at least 10 days,” he said. “That is because the infections we are finding today and over the coming week to ten days are people who have been infected before today. So the numbers will continue to increase before they turn around.”

That turnaround will happen if all New Zealanders do what is being asked of them, which is to stay home, break the chain and save lives, Ashley said.

Most cases are still linked to overseas travel. 

“What we continue to see is that the majority of cases still have a direct link to overseas travel, including being in the same household as someone who has returned from overseas, or they have attended a known event or are part of a cluster where there are other cases - an example being the World Hereford cattle Conference in Queenstown earlier this month, or they are other close contacts of a confirmed case,” he said. 

There were “a number of cases” currently being investigated which were suspected to be community transmission. Going into alert level four would help to prevent further community transmission, he said.

Yesterday 1,421 COVID-19 tests were processed, taking New Zealand’s total number of tests completed to 9,780. “We will continue to test people who need to be tested,” Ashley said. 

Ashley urged New Zealanders to take care of themselves and others as the country enters alert level four (in place from 11.59pm tonight).

PHOTO: Supplied