133 Molesworth Street
PO Box 5013
Wellington 6140
New Zealand
+64 4 496 2000
Linda Dalgleish
By email:
[FYI request #12904 email]
Ref:
H202003826
Dear Ms Dalgleish
Response to your request for official information Thank you for your request to the Ministry of Health (the Ministry) under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act) on 27 May 2020 for:
"I am writing to request the data showing the number of people that have been infected
with Covid19 in NZ rest homes.
I require this to be broken down into recovered cases, current infections and deaths of
those infected with Covid19 in NZ rest homes.
I would also like a break down of these same statistics for each individual rest home in
NZ where infection of Covid19occurred.”
To identify individual cases located in New Zealand rest homes would require substantial
research and collation as the information would need to be collated from individual records
held. Therefore, your request is refused under section 18(f) of the Act.
However, the Ministry holds information relating to clusters of COVID-19 infection occurring at
New Zealand rest homes. The clusters include infected residents, staff and outside contacts of
New Zealand rest homes. This information is publicly available at:
https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-
coronavirus/covid-19-current-situation/covid-19-current-cases/covid-19-significant-clusters. In respect of the clusters associated with aged residential care facilities, where you have
asked for the number of recovered cases, current infections and deaths broken down by each
individual rest home, these are withheld under section 9(2)(a) of the Act, to protect the privacy
of natural persons, including that of deceased natural persons.
Table One: Case Status of all cases in clusters associated with aged residential care
facilities.
Case Status
Number of Cases
Recovered
162
Active
0
Deceased
16
Total
178
Under section 28 of the Act, you have the right to ask the Ombudsman to review any
decisions made under this request.
Please note that this response, with your personal details removed, may be published on the
Ministry website.
Yours sincerely
Natalie Richardson
Director
COVID-19 Health System Response