One new imported case of COVID-19 has been detected in New Zealand's managed isolation and quarantine facilities (MIQ), the Ministry of Health announced on Monday, with no new cases of community transmission to report.
In Monday's statement, the department also revealed that as of Wednesday, it will stop issuing daily updates on the number of cases in New Zealand - given the vast majority of new infections are detected in recent returnees staying in MIQ facilities.
The Ministry of Health confirmed it would be scaling back the frequency of its media updates to four times a week, the schedule currently set for Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
"At this stage of New Zealand's response to COVID-19, we are seeing cases routinely appear at the border in recent returnees in managed isolation facilities," the ministry said. "We expect this to continue to be the case while we remain in Alert Level 1 with managed isolation requirements in place.
"To reflect this, the ministry is reducing the frequency of media updates to four times a week."
The reduced updates will report the number of new arrivals that have tested positive over the preceding days. Any significant developments, such as evidence of community transmission, will be announced sooner if required, the ministry stressed.
"The public can be assured that the ministry will report any significant development, including any case emerging in the community, sooner if required," said the statement.
Monday's case arrived in New Zealand on December 4 from the United Kingdom via Hong Kong. They tested positive upon arrival and have been transferred to Auckland's quarantine facility, the Jet Park Hotel.
One previously reported case has now recovered from the virus, bringing the country's active case total to 56. The total number of confirmed cases now stands at 1723.
On Sunday, laboratories processed 2315 tests, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 1,312,307.
The Government's official contact tracing technology, the NZ COVID Tracer app, now has 2,395,000 registered users. QR code posters have been scanned 134,292,215 times, and users have created 5,407,554 manual diary entries.
