The Ministry of Health's Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield updated the media at 3:30pm Tuesday 17 March on the health response to COVID-19.
Summary The Director-General of Health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield says New Zealand has three new cases of COVID-19 – all cases are connected to overseas travel.
None required hospital treatment and are recovering at home. Testing and isolating people is the best way to break the lines of transmission.
We need to ensure the right people are being tested. Healthline and the Government call-centre answered more than 7000 calls yesterday and phone capacity is being increased to ensure calls are answered as quickly as possible.