There are no new cases of coronavirus in New Zealand, the Director-General of Health has announced.
It marks the second day in a row of no new cases at the border or in the community, following a run of nine consecutive days with at least one new case.
The total number of active cases at our border stays at 22, and there is still no evidence of community transmission, Dr Ashley Bloomfield says.
"All of those cases have recently returned from overseas and are or were in managed isolation. There is one person who remains in a hospital ward," he explained.
The total number of confirmed cases - the figure the Ministry of Health passes on to the World Health Organization - stays at 1178.
"Just to put those case numbers into context, you will have heard overnight Anthony Fauci from the USA talking about the possibility of 100,000 new cases every day there," he said.
"That would be the equivalent in New Zealand of around 1500 cases per day, which is more than the total number of cases we have had since the start of this pandemic."
Dr Bloomfield says New Zealand is "almost unique" in its success in keeping COVID-19 at bay, but says while things feel back to normal, "we do not want to give up our hard-won efforts".
"[We don't want] the opportunities affored by being at alert level 1 and our ability to have our domestic economy and how we can live our daily lives compromised at all," he said.
Bloomfield says the resurgence in case numbers Australia has seen in recent times is a reminder for New Zealanders "that we must continue to be on guard and vigilant, as individuals, as communities and as a country".
"It’s good news that all of our currently active cases have been caught at the border, and there is no evidence of community transmission. However we will continue widespread testing of people with symptoms across the community as part of our ongoing surveillance," he said.
New Zealand has also passed another milestone, Dr Bloomfield revealed, with the number of completed tests in the country surpassing 400,000.
