Eight new cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus have been confirmed in New Zealand.
This takes the total number of cases in the country to 20, the Ministry of Health confirmed today.
Four of the new cases are in Auckland, one in Christchurch, two in Waikato and one in Invercargill.
All cases are related to overseas travel, but Ministry of Health's Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield didn't have more detail on where the travellers had arrived from at this time.
He says they are all Kiwis who returned from overseas.
It is believed 80,000 New Zealanders could be travelling overseas. (Source: Other)
Also announced at this afternoon's press briefing was the testing of 150 students at Dunedin's Logan Park High School, after a teenage pupil there tested positive for Covid-19 yesterday.
These 150 students have been classed as close contacts of the positive case.
The student who tested positive yesterday is the child of a man in his 40s who recently returned to New Zealand from Germany.
In the briefing today, Dr Bloomfield also agreed that modelling shows community cases are likely to start appearing in New Zealand in early April, with the peak of cases happening in August.
Health officials are testing 150 people who are close contacts of the Dunedin student. (Source: Other)
He says the Government is working to stop that modelling from occurring so the health system doesn't get overwhelmed.
"I think that we have no evidence at the moment of community outbreak and our border restrictions are intended to keep that risk low, it is something we are very, very, alert for.
"That is why are wanting to do sufficient testing so that we can detect any evidence of community outbreak and then respond accordingly," Dr Bloomfield said.
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