There are no new cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand for the 19th consecutive day, the Ministry of Health confirmed on Wednesday.
There are currently no known active cases of the virus after the recovery of the country's last active case, an Auckland woman, was announced on Monday.
Therefore, New Zealand's official COVID-19 figures remain the same:
- Number of confirmed cases (the figure reported to the World Health Organization): 1154
- Number of probable cases: 350
- Combined total of confirmed and probable cases: 1504
- Number of recovered cases: 1482
- Number of virus-related deaths: 22
- Number of active cases: Zero
- Number of cases currently in hospital: Zero.
On Tuesday, 2631 tests were processed, bringing the overall total of processed tests to 298,532. The seven-day rolling average (from June 3 to June 9) is 2144.
Wednesday marks the second day under alert level 1 of the Government's COVID-19 response. On Monday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern deliberated with her Cabinet on whether New Zealand was ready to transition back to almost pre-COVID normality - ultimately deciding to move the country into level 1 at 11:59pm that night.
Previous restrictive measures, such as physical distancing and caps on social gatherings, have been removed under the new alert level. New Zealanders are still advised to follow the Ministry of Health's standard public health messages, such as practicing good sneezing etiquette, maintaining good hand hygiene and staying home when presenting flu-like symptoms.
During the last live COVID-19 briefing on Tuesday, the Ministry of Health's Director-General of Health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, confirmed some new restrictions regarding returning Kiwis.
As New Zealanders continue to fly home from overseas, the mandatory 14-day isolation period upon arrival still applies. Symptomatic people will be placed into quarantine, while those without symptoms will go into managed self-isolation.
However, there have been some changes to the exemption process. People can still apply for leave on compassionate grounds - either to visit a dying loved one or to spend time with a small group of people before or after the funeral service - but they may not attend the funeral or tangihanga.
