Eight new Covid-19 cases today in managed isolation, plus Air NZ staff member

Eight new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in New Zealand today, caught at the border in managed isolation.

There are officially no new community cases, although the Ministry of Health confirmed that the Air New Zealand crew member who tested positive in China has been tested here and is confirmed as a positive case.

That case will be counted in tomorrow's numbers, health officials said. 

That crew member, along with seven close contact and six casual contacts from the flight arrived in New Zealand this morning and were isolated.

Eleven tests from those contacts have already been carried out - all were negative, but are in isolation regardless.

Five of the new cases were a single family which arrived from Mexico on November 19.

Genome sequencing is underway on the crew member to find the source of their infection.

The three other cases are people who arrived November 19 from Finland, Canada and the US.

The number of currently active cases in New Zealand is now 59, and the total number of cases so far is 1683.

Laboratories carried out 5779 tests yesterday, bringing the total to 1,243,518.