There is today just one active case of COVID-19 in the south of New Zealand.

The Southern District Health Board, which covers the entire area south of the Waitaki River, reports that 213 people of the 216 reported to have contracted the virus have now recovered.

The last time a case of COVID-19 was reported in the SDHB area was April 18.

No new cases of COVID-19 were reported anywhere in New Zealand today, meaning the combined total of confirmed and probable cases remains at 1498, of which 1148 are confirmed cases. 

Nationally 1428 people are reported as having recovered from COVID-19, representing 95% of all confirmed and probable cases. 

Three people are receiving hospital-level care for COVID-19 – one each in Auckland, Middlemore and Waikato hospitals. None is in intensive care.

The country remains at Alert Level 2 meaning the following key health measures must be strictly adhered to:

• most importantly - if you’re sick, stay home. Don’t go to work or school. Don’t socialise

• keep your distance from other people when you’re out in public, including on transport

• if you have symptoms of cold or flu call your doctor or Healthline immediately and get tested

• good hand hygiene will continue to be a simple and effective tool to keep COVID-19 at bay

• keep your social gatherings to a maximum of 10 people at once

• keep track of where you’ve been and who you’ve seen to help with contact tracing if we need it.

The international death toll from COVID-19 grew by 5073 in the 24 hours since the World Health Organisation’s last situation report, bringing the total number of deaths to 297,119 deaths. There have been 4,338,658 confirmed cases reported – 90,269 of those in the previous 24 hours.