There have been no new cases of COVID-19 recorded in New Zealand for the second consecutive day.

The total number of cases reported to date is 1497 – 1147 of those confirmed.

Four more people are now considered to have recovered from COVID-19, bringing the total to 1398, or 94% of all cases.

In the Southern District Health Board area, 207 of the 216 cases have now recovered, leaving seven active cases.

There have been no new cases reported in the SDHB area since April 18.

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said just over 4% of New Zealand's population (203,045 people) had now been tested for COVID-19.

As New Zealand prepared to enter Level 2 alert status, he said the sense of anticipation was both palpable and understandable, however it was vital that Kiwis continued to model personal behaviours that would keep COVID-19 out. They were:

• Keep your distance
• Say home from if sick
• See a doctor or call Healthline and ask about being tested if displaying cold or flu symptoms
• Maintain good hand hygiene
• Keep a record of where you have been and who you have been in contact with
• Do not take part in social gatherings of more than 10 people

"We can't afford to give away the progress we've made," he said.

Globally there have been 4,088,848 confirmed cases reported to the World Health Organisation, 82,591 of them in the previous 24 hours. There have been 283,153 deaths, an increase of 4261 in the previous 24 hours.