There are no new community Covid-19 cases in New Zealand today, but there are 18 new cases at the border.
The new cases include 13 positive Covid-19 cases this morning announced from the quarantined fishing vessel Viking Bay, docked in Wellington.
The new cases aboard the vessel are in addition to two crew members who were previously reported as having tested positive for the virus. All 15 affected crew have now been transferred to an onshore quarantine facility in Wellington.
Today's five other new cases are in recent returnees to the country.
Three of those returnees are historical cases - two of which arrived from the Philippines via Singapore on June 25, with one testing positive on arrival and the other on day 12. The other is a person who arrived from Russia via the United Arab Emirates on June 26 and tested positive on arrival.
Another new case today arrived from Malaysia via Singapore on July 8. They tested positive for Covid-19 on day 3 in managed isolation.
It brings the total number of cases on the ship to 15 with one confirmed as the delta variant. (Source: Other)
The final new case today arrived from Indonesia via Singapore on July 9 and tested positive on arrival in the country.
Eight previously reported cases have now recovered, bringing the number of active Covid-19 cases in New Zealand to 43.
There has now been 2430 cases in New Zealand since the pandemic began.
Sick crew tested in Taranaki
Crew with flu-like symptoms aboard a Spanish flagged ship are being tested for Covid-19 after applying for permission for a change of crew at Port Taranaki.
Testing of those on board the Playa Zahara is underway by health authorities following its berthing this morning, the Ministry of Health said.
"Once testing is complete, the ship will then depart from the onshore quarantine place of inspection and will remain offshore until test results are available tomorrow. If the results show there is no evidence of Covid-19 on board, then the vessel will be granted pratique for a crew change," the ministry said.
The situation has been described by health authorities as low risk to public health.
Meanwhile, there were almost 3500 tests for Covid-19 processed at labs around the country yesterday, adding to a total of 2.35 million since the pandemic began.
However, those test numbers do not include the number of tests processed by Waikato District Health Board due to disruptions from a cyber attack. The DHB is manually recording data, but shows it is testing about 300 swabs a day.
The Covid Tracer app now has 2.89 million registered users.
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