Wellington: New Zealand on Saturday recorded its first Covid-related death in over six months. A woman in her 90s died in an Auckland hospital on Friday night.
She is the 27th person to die with Covid-19 in New Zealand and the first recorded since February 16 this year.
Authorities said the woman was a household contact of a person who had already tested positive for the virus in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city.
New Zealand has been battling a coronavirus outbreak since the first locally transmitted case in six months was detected in mid-August, thrusting the country of five million into lockdown.
Since then, 782 cases have been recorded, primarily in Auckland, which remains at its highest level of restrictions while the rest of the country has eased back restrictions.
Auckland remains under a strict lockdown. Most public places are shut elsewhere as well.
New Zealand has reported 3,392 confirmed cases of COVID and 27 related deaths since the pandemic began.
