Tributes paid to former prime minister of the Cook Islands, Joseph Williams, who has died from COVID-19, New Zealand's second coronavirus-related death in as many days.
Joseph Williams, the former prime minister of the Cook Islands, has died of coronavirus in Auckland., the Ministry of Health said in a statement on Saturday, taking the national death toll from the virus to 24.
"Today’s sad news again reinforces the importance of our shared vigilance against COVID-19, the very serious consequences the virus can carry with it, and the measures we all need to take to stop the spread, break any chain of transmission and prevent deaths," New Zealand's Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said."Our thoughts are with his family and community at this time of loss and grief.
He also served as a member of the World Health Organization's executive board between 1995 and 1997 and was a patron of the Pasifika Medical Association. A day earlier, a man in his 50s died of coronavirus in Auckland, the first virus-related death in the country for more than three months.
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