Covid-19 daily brief with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield. Wednesday 15 April, 2020.

More people have recovered from coronavirus than are currently diagnosed with it in New Zealand.

The Government announced just 20 new probable and confirmed cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday, but 100 new confirmed recoveries.

That brought the total number of recoveries to 728 - more than half of the total number of probable and confirmed cases in New Zealand, which was now 1386.

MONIQUE FORD / STUFF Messages at Wellington's Oriental Parade asked cyclists to watch out for walkers and give them and their bubble space.

Health Director General Ashley Bloomfield said it appeared New Zealand was past its first peak but that didn't mean it could step down its health response.

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KEVIN STENT/STUFF Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand's Covid-19 deaths were a sad and sobering reminder to stay the course.

There were no new deaths announced by the Government, but Bloomfield said the ministry was investigating the case of a Southland man who died in his home while self-isolating for Covid-19.

CLUSTERS

There were now 16 significant clusters - one more than Tuesday. This new cluster is in Auckland and is connected to an aged-care facility, he said.

HAGEN HOPKINS/STUFF Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield has ordered a review of aged care facilities and later this week he will announce funding for the aged residential care sector to help offset additional costs.

Bloomfield noted that the clusters would grow by more than 20 because there were some cases that they previously knew about but hadn't yet linked to a cluster, which they now have.

"This is good news."

Bloomfield said that the cluster linked to the aged care facility was not confined to it and included people connected to it.

BRADEN FASTIER / STUFF The Ministry of Health is continuing to undertake more analysis of the testing done to date, ask DHBs to expand testing again, and further strengthen contact tracing efforts.

There are 13 people in hospital and this includes three people in ICU – one each in Middlemore, Dunedin and North Shore hospitals.

Two of the ICU patients – in North Shore and Dunedin – are in a critical condition.

There were no further deaths to report on Wednesday, he said.

Kavinda Herath Bloomfield expected about 10 million PPE items would be delivered this week, of which 9 million were procedure masks or equivalent. Next week he expect 18 million items.

On Tuesday, after a ninth death was announced, Ardern said the deaths were a sad and sobering reminder to stay the course.

Echoing Bloomfield's earlier comment that New Zealand was past the peak and addressing commentary about "taking the foot off the pedal", she said: "We are successfully over the peak but that is not the same thing as being out of the woods."

Bloomfield ordered a review of aged care facilities and later this week he will announce funding for the aged residential care sector to help offset additional costs.

For the cases the ministry has information on, 48 per cent involve contact with a confirmed case within New Zealand, including those in known clusters. About 39 per cent had a link with overseas travel and community transmission accounted for 2 per cent.

About 2100 tests were processed on Tuesday, with a rolling 7-day average of 2761 and total tests to date of 66,499.

Bloomfield has spoken with DHB chief executives about the need to increase testing following the Easter break.

DHBs were committed to increasing testing - including the use of mobile testing in some places to reach specific communities, he said.

HEALTHCARE WORKERS

Bloomfield said the ministry was working on further analysis of data involving healthcare workers and Covid-19 infection.

The observation so far was that in cases of domestic transmission involving healthcare workers, only a relatively small number of cases involved transmission from patient to worker.

There were five instances where it wasn't clear where the infection came from and they would will be investigated further, he said.

In the majority of the transmissions within healthcare settings, more staff have been infected than patients.

The ministry says the analysis reinforces the way healthcare providers are working to prevent and manage infections across the sector.