There were no new cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand today, however the total number of confirmed cases has risen due to previous cases under investigation now being confirmed.

These cases are people who returned to New Zealand from the Greg Mortimer cruise ship in April and who had all tested positive for COVID-19 in Uruguay. They were classified as being under investigation while awaiting information from Uruguay to avoid them being double counted by the World Health Organisation. We have now confirmed these cases were not reported by Uruguay. All four have recovered. 

That means New Zealand has 1153 confirmed cases of COVID-19, and 350 probable cases, for a combined total of 1503. 

Nine more people have recovered from COVID-19, meaning 96% of all confirmed and probable cases are now considered to have recovered. 

Two people are in hospital – one each in Auckland and Middlemore hospitals. Neither are in intensive care. 

There has been no change to the Southern District Health Board numbers where one active case remains.

The World Health Organisation’s latest situation report shows the number of confirmed cases worldwide is 4,618,821 cases (93,324 in the previous 24 hours) and the number of death has been 311,847 deaths (4452 in the previous 24 hours).