The first travellers from the UK and US under the new requirements for pre-departure testing arrived into New Zealand over the weekend, with Customs reporting very high levels of compliance.
The Ministry recognises the extra effort required to comply and thanks these individuals very much for their contribution to helping keep New Zealand's borders safe.
From 11.59 pm Friday, travellers from the United States and United Kingdom must produce a negative test result for COVID-19 or a signed medical exemption upon landing in New Zealand.
"This measure is in addition to travellers arriving from the United States and the United Kingdom requiring a COVID-19 test within 24 hours of arriving into managed isolation and staying in their rooms until a negative test result is returned," says a Ministry of Health spokesperson.
"Pre-departure testing will soon be expanded to include all countries excluding Australia, Antarctica and some Pacific Island nations.
"These additional requirements have been put in place to further strengthen our border, to protect New Zealand from COVID-19 and new emerging variants."
More detailed information for travellers can be found on the United Against COVID-19 website.
Ten new cases of COVID in managed isolation
There are 10 cases of COVID-19 to report in managed isolation in New Zealand since our last media statement on Friday. One of these cases is classified as historical and deemed not infectious.
There are no new cases in the community.
New border cases
| New border case details | ||||
| Arrival date | From | Via | Positive test day/reason | Managed isolation/ quarantine location |
| 5 Sept | Pakistan | United Arab Emirates | Completed isolation/2 negative tests. Tested now for pre-departure travel | Christchurch |
| Note: This person completed isolation and returned two negative test results in September. The person was recently retested as a pre-travel requirement and returned a weak positive indicative of an historical infection. | ||||
| 3 Jan | Japan | Around day 12/routine testing | Auckland | |
| 7 Jan | United States | Around day 7/contact of a case | Christchurch | |
| 9 Jan | UK | United Arab Emirates | Around day 1/contact of a case | Auckland |
| 10 Jan | Scotland | United Arab Emirates | Around day 5/symptomatic | Auckland |
| 12 Jan | United Arab Emirates | Malaysia | Around day 3/routine testing | Auckland |
| 12 Jan | Yet to be determined | United Arab Emirates | Around day 3/routine testing | Auckland |
| 14 Jan |
United Kingdom | United Arab Emirates | Around day 0/1/routine testing | Auckland |
| 14 Jan | South Africa | United Arab Emirates | Around day 1/contact of a case | Auckland |
| 14 Jan | South Africa | United Arab Emirates | Around day 1/contact of a case/symptoms | Auckland |
Four cases have now recovered bringing the total number of active cases in New Zealand to 82. Our total number of confirmed cases is 1900.
The total number of tests processed by laboratories to date is 1,463,890.
On Friday 3325 tests were processed and yesterday there were 3488 tests processed, says an MOH spokesperson.
The seven-day rolling average up to yesterday is 3635 tests processed.
"Over the summer break the Ministry of Health continues to encourage people with any COVID-19 symptoms to get assessed for testing by contacting their doctor or calling Healthline.
"Healthline is free and available 24/7. Medical professionals are best placed to assess whether a test is needed."
NZ COVID Tracer
NZ COVID Tracer now has 2,446,396 registered users.
Poster scans have reached 154,086,831 and users have now created more than 6,226,200 manual diary entries.
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