There were no new cases of Covid-19 reported in New Zealand today for the 18th consecutive day.
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Blooomfield confirmed the news today, New Zealand's first day at Alert Level 2.
There are currently no active cases of the virus after it was announced yesterday the final person officially recorded as having Covid-19 in New Zealand had recovered.
However, when asked about a suspected Covid-19 case in Auckland today, Dr Bloomfield said, "we did get notified this morning of a possible positive result and because it was a very weak positive it was re-tested and re-validated ... of course that made a few hearts flutter but the re-validation was a negative result which is good."
They were two siblings - one whose test came back negative and the other a "weak positive", then negative.
"What I can say in this case is that the people who were tested did everything right."
Dr Bloomfield said there had been other false positive tests for the coronavirus over recent months, which is why some positive test results were re-validated.
The total number of confirmed and probable Covid-19 cases New Zealand has had is 1504, with 22 people having died of the illness.
Yesterday there were 1053 Covid-19 tests carried out in New Zealand. Testing on Mondays are typically lower following the weekend. The number adds to the total number of tests for the virus in New Zealand throughout the pandemic - nearly 296,000.
Today though, Dr Bloomfield announced stricter Covid-19 quarantine and testing of people arriving into New Zealand.
As it stands people entering the country are required to stay in quarantine for 14 days.
The good news came today as Kiwis got used to re-gained freedoms that come with a move to Alert Level 1. (Source: Other)
New measures in place today mean people coming into New Zealand will be tested twice for the virus during the quarantine period - around day three and day 12 - regardless of if they have any symptoms.
In addition, people coming in from overseas will not be allowed to apply for exemptions against quarantining to attend funerals and tangihanga. They will be able to apply for compassionate leave to be with a small group of loved ones before or after the funeral or tangihanga instead.
Dr Bloomfield said New Zealand's strict border controls remain the "safety net" in protecting the nation from the virus getting in "now that we are confident we have eliminated community transmission of the virus here in New Zealand".
"This is part of our arrangements to ensure we are not missing anything at the border," Dr Bloomfield said.
"We're making these changes because someone who may have been exposed to Covid-19 overseas now poses a greater risk to those of us in New Zealand given we are under Alert Level 1 and have much greater interaction between people."
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