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National | Health

Today marks NZ's first week without any new COVID-19 cases

For the seventh day in a row, there are no new cases of COVID-19 to report in New Zealand.

The Ministry of Health says the total number of confirmed cases remains at 1,154, which is the number reported to the World Health Organization.

“Our combined total of confirmed and probable cases remains at 1,504. There are seven additional recovered cases meaning this total is now 1,481. Only one case remains active,” the ministry said in a statement.

There are no additional deaths to report and the total number of deaths related to the infection remains at 22.

There is no one in New Zealand receiving hospital-level care for COVID-19.

“Yesterday our laboratories completed 4,162 tests, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 275,852.”

Gatherings

A change to the size of social gatherings that are permitted under Alert Level 2 came into effect at midday today.

Groups of up to 100 people are now permitted – this includes events at home and outside of home, and gatherings like religious services, parties, weddings, tangihanga and funerals.

“It’s important everyone continues to play it safe. The person in charge of a social gathering must ensure records are kept for contact tracing purposes, except in cases where every person in a gathering knows each other," the ministry said.

The rules of seated, separated, single-server still apply for hospitality businesses, but they can now take group bookings for more than 10 people.

Faith-based gatherings and clubs will be able to operate with the 100 person maximum applying in each defined area, as long as intermingling in common spaces can be prevented.

NZ COVID Tracer app

The ministry says the NZ COVID Tracer app has now recorded 446,000 registrations – that’s an increase of 10,000 since this time yesterday.

“We continue to encourage as many people as possible to download the app – it will help us identify, trace, test and isolate any cases of COVID-19, the ministry says.

“We also recognise the work being done by businesses to get their unique QR codes up and running, with 19,530 posters having been created as of this morning.”

More information about the changes to gatherings under Alert Level 2 can be found here.