There are 67 new cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand, officials said on Monday, taking the country's total to 1106.
The latest figures were announced by the Ministry of Health's Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield during his stand-up on Monday.
Of the new cases, 39 of these were confirmed cases and 28 were probable cases. Thirteen people are in hospital, three of these in ICU.
Dr Bloomfield said the numbers were "encouraging".
"Clearly the levelling off is a good sign. We've clearly avoided that exponential growth," he said.
However he said we need to see the number of cases reduce before we can look at dropping the alert level.
There are 12 significant clusters. The latest cluster in Christchurch is in the Rosewood Rest Home, where there are 15 confirmed and probable cases among residents and staff.
There are also:
- 72 cases in the Marist cluster
- 62 cases from the wedding in Bluff
- 58 cases in the Matamata cluster
Dr Bloomfield gave an update of the ethnicities of those affected. These were:
- 73.6 percent European
- 8.4 percent Asian
- 7.8 percent Maori
- 3.4 percent Pacifica
The seven-day rolling average of tests completed is 2846. Just under 40,000 tests have been completed in total. Dr Bloomfield said 190 staff are working in contact tracing centres to trace people who might have come into contact with the coronavirus.
