There are two new cases of Covid-19 today, made up of one confirmed case and one probable case. It is the eleventh day in a row where case numbers have been in single digits.
Another Northland Covid-19 case has recovered as New Zealand registered just two new positive cases today.
Twenty-two of Northland's 28 cases have now recovered with the remaining six isolating the community. It was Northland's 12th day of no new cases.
Nationally, one confirmed case and one probable case were announced today by Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield. The confirmed case was in Auckland and related to international travel. The probable case was a close contact of an existing case.
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield. Photo / File
New Zealand's total confirmed and probable case tally was now 1474, including 1229 recoveries (83 per cent). Over 2600 tests were completed yesterday, taking the overall total to 128,073. There were still 16 significant clusters and no additional deaths.
Bloomfield said it was important the public remember physical distancing guidelines after images had circulated of crowds gathering at businesses which opened under alert level three yesterday.
"Overall the message is the same, stay home, save lives and that's our number one rule for alert level three," he said.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern reinforced Bloomfield's message, and stated New Zealand was, "not out of the woods yet".
During the first 18 hours of alert level three, Ardern said 21 people had been prosecuted and 71 warnings delivered for those not abiding by alert level three rules.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Photo / File
She also said there had been 742 complaints regarding non-compliant businesses with most concerning a lack of physical distancing. Ardern highlight restaurant BurgerFuel as one business which failed to maintain physical distancing at some of its premises.
Regarding commercial rents, Ardern said the Government was now considering commercial rent concessions in whole or in part for Covid-hit businesses as some parties had been unable to make arrangements with commercial tenants who couldn't pay their rent.
With reference to education, Ardern said 7713 children were attending early learning services and 11,846 were at school as at 10:30am today - the first day of school reopenings since lockdown.
These numbers represented four per cent national attendance for early learning services and one per cent for schools. However, only 37 per cent of early learning services and 55 per cent of schools had reported such data and Ardern expected attendance numbers to rise.
In an earlier press conference today, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters outlined how Cabinet rejected advice from the Ministry of Health for total shutdown of the border, including to returning New Zealanders.
Peters, and later Ardern, both said the Ministry's advice was understandable in a public health sense but confirmed the idea of shutting out New Zealanders was inconceivable.
