New Zealand has gone without a new community coronavirus case for an entire week, the Ministry of Health has revealed.
The latest COVID-19 update shows there is one new case of COVID-19, but it's in a managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facility.
The new case is a member of the Christchurch-based international mariners group who tested positive, the ministry said in a press release.
"This individual was a close contact of a previously reported case from the same group of mariners who had tested positive during day six testing, and as such was already being closely monitored."
A ministry spokesperson said the new case gives health officials confidence that the "standard practice for managing cases and contacts within managed isolation, supplemented by extending the isolation period and additional testing, was the right approach to take".
They added that day 15 testing will be carried out this weekend of all group members who are not already confirmed cases.
All those who meet low-risk indicators - which includes those who've recovered or have returned consistently negative test results throughout their stay - will be eligible to leave MIQ from next Tuesday.
Meanwhile genome sequencing carried out on a Sofrana Surville crew member in Queensland has provided more evidence that the engineer who worked on the ship was infected by exposure to new crew members.
The positive Queensland case returned the same genome subtype as three recent cases from the Auckland maritime company.
"The Brisbane sequence was one mutation earlier than the genomes sequenced from our New Zealand cases," the ministry said.
"We continue to investigate the exact circumstances where the infection might have occurred to inform any changes to protocols designed to keep workers and our communities safe."
Three more cases have recovered in the last 24 hours, which sees the total number of active cases drop to 68.
The new case on Friday takes the tally of confirmed and probable cases to 1950.
New Zealand's laboratories completed 7472 tests for COVID-19, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 1,090,702.
It's the second consecutive day of more than 7000 tests completed, which the ministry says is a good sign of "a sustained response to the call for anyone with symptoms to be tested".
