As New Zealanders are urged to prepare for an imminent second wave of Covid-19, the country's top health official is demonstrating how to correctly use a face mask on social media this morning.
There are no new cases of Covid-19 to report in New Zealand today.
It has been 99 days since the last case of Covid was acquired locally from an unknown source.
The Ministry of Health said there are no new recovered cases to report, so there continue to be 23 active cases, all in managed isolation facilities. None of those people are receiving hospital-level care.
New Zealand's number of confirmed cases remains at 1,219.
Yesterday the Ministry of Health's laboratories processed 3,289 tests, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 490,232. There were also 720 swabs taken in managed isolation and quarantine facilities yesterday.
Yesterday, Taranaki and Mid Central DHBs held well-supported testing pop-ups.
Mid Central hosted two sites which the Ministry of Health described as generating "a great turnout despite some wet weather". There were 576 tests across the two pop-ups, with more than 700 tests district-wide.
The Ministry of Health is also reporting "good numbers" so far at the Auckland DHB Covid-19 pop-up surveillance testing site in Manurewa.
Despite rain and thunderstorms this morning, there were around 10 cars waiting for the 9am opening. More than 75 people have been tested so far at the Manurewa site.
The Ministry of Health reiterated this week that it isn't necessary for the public to wear masks at Alert Level 1, because there's no evidence of community transmission in New Zealand.
"Masks will be most useful when Covid-19 is present in our community and people are in situations where they are in close proximity to each other."
The ministry said pop-up testing centres continue to be popular and are playing an important part in helping the country rule out any potential for Covid-19 in the community.
Taranaki District Health Board is holding a pop-up in central New Plymouth today from 1-3pm at the New World carpark for members of the public to get swabbed.
Mid Central are running two testing stations in Palmerston North today – one in the carpark of New World Pioneer and the other at an event at the Pasifika Community Centre at Bill Brown Park.
The metro Auckland DHBs will be providing free COVID-19 swabbing at a pop-up surveillance testing site in Manurewa this weekend.
The drive-thru/walk-thru testing centre will be set up at the Southmall car park, entrance via Weymouth Road, Manurewa, on Saturday 8 August starting at 9am until 4pm.
There will be a pop-up testing clinic for Canterbury people without symptoms who wish to be tested for COVID-19 – again this Saturday 8 August.
The Ministry also reported that 641,400 people have downloaded the Covid-19 tracer app.
There have been 86,224 posters created, and 1,987,955 poster scans. There have been 65,803 manual entries recorded in the app.
"The Ministry has received feedback that some businesses have stopped displaying their QR codes. We are getting in touch with every organisation that has generated a code to provide another copy of their poster along with guidance on where to display it."
On Thursday, Health Minister Chris Hipkins recommended that all Kiwi households should add masks to their earthquake emergency kits.
"It is not necessary for the public to wear masks at alert level 1, because there is no evidence of community transmission in New Zealand," the ministry said.
"Masks will be most useful when Covid-19 is present in our community and people are in situations where they are in close proximity to each other."
This morning, director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield demonstrated how to correctly use a face mask during a Facebook Live video session.
Earlier this week Hipkins warned if the country was ever to return to alert level two, Kiwis would be encouraged to wear masks in situations where they couldn't physically distance.
