Ashley Bloomfield
Videos
Sir Ashley Robin Bloomfield is a New Zealand public health official. He served as the chief executive of the Ministry of Health and the country's Director-General of Health from 2018 to 2022. He was the public-facing health specialist liaising with the media during the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand on behalf of the government, from the first press conference on 27 January 2020.
Bloomfield after the 2020 Parliamentary rugby match
Bloomfield (right) elbow bumps with Michael Holdsworth at Government House, Wellington, in October 2020, while Dame Patsy Reddy and Sir David Gascoigne look on
Bloomfield's investiture as a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit by the governor-general, Dame Cindy Kiro, at Government House, Wellington, on 31 May 2023
The COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand was part of the pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. The first case of the disease in New Zealand was reported on 28 February 2020. The country recorded over 2,274,370 cases. Over 3,000 people died as a result of the pandemic, with cases recorded in all twenty district health board (DHB) areas. The pandemic first peaked in early April 2020, with 89 new cases recorded per day and 929 active cases. Cases peaked again in October 2021 with 134 new cases reported on 22 October.
Two cruise ships—Celebrity Solstice and Azamara Journey—in Port Chalmers on 15 March
COVID-19 testing centre in Palmerston North
Oyster Cove, the venue of the Bluff wedding at Stirling Point