Another day of no new cases of COVID-19 has been recorded in New Zealand, the Director-General of Health has revealed.
Tuesday's figures marks the second consecutive day of no coronavirus cases in the community or in managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facilities.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield says three people remain in hospital - one each in Auckland City, Middlemore, North Shore - though none of these patients are in intensive care.
There have been 4003 close contacts identified by health officials since August 11, when a resurgence in community cases was first detected. All but 11 of these have been contacted and are self-isolating, with contact tracers still trying to get in touch with the rest.
Another person has now recovered from their infection, which sees the number of active cases in New Zealand drop to 61 - 29 of which are imported, and 32 in the community.
Another 3278 COVID-19 tests were processed on Monday, bringing the overall number of tests completed to 917,699.
Meanwhile there are 39 people isolating at Auckland's quarantine facility the Jet Park Hotel, made up of 18 confirmed cases and their household contacts.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield also had more details on the case of a man said who tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday, despite completing his mandatory 14 days in a Christchurch MIQ facility and earlier returning two negative results.
This man is now staying at the Jet Park Hotel, and precautionary steps are being taken to prevent a further outbreak.
Dr Bloomfield said 85 close contacts from the same Christchurch-Auckland chartered flight he was on have been identified. He was sitting in the fourth row of the plane, so all passengers in the first nine rows have been asked to undergo testing.
The 29 people closest to his seat have already been tested. All but one of these passengers returned negative results.
This passenger returned a positive test with a high cycle threshold (CT) value on Monday - a weak positive result that suggests it's an old infection. Like Saturday's case, this person had also returned negative tests while in MIQ and had not been symptomatic.
They have now been retested and returned a negative result on Tuesday morning. Serology testing is now being undertaken, the Ministry of Health says.
"This person remains under investigation to confirm that this is an historic case, and whether it has already reported as a case in India," a press release explained.
The remaining passengers on the Christchurch-Auckland flight are in the process of being contacted, and will be tested as appropriate.
