Seven new cases of Covid-19 at border, day after Govt sets NZ-Aus travel bubble date

The Ministry of Heath has confirmed seven new cases of Covid-19 at New Zealand's managed isolation and quarantine facilities today.

Meanwhile, there are no new Covid-19 community cases today.

Six of today's new cases arrived from India via United Arab Emirates on April 5 and tested positive on arrival in Auckland. 

The other new case today is a close contact of a case reported yesterday. They arrived from the US on March 22.

Today's new cases bring the total number of active Covid-19 cases in New Zealand to 81. The total number since the pandemic began is 2175.

Yesterday, 3389 tests for the virus were carried out, adding to the total number since the pandemic began: 1.92 million.

The Ministry of Health also confirmed that the Auckland February cluster, which started with a family at Papatoetoe High School on February 13, has closed. It comes 28 days after the last identified case in the cluster recovered.

The NZ Covid Tracer app now has 2.77 million registered users.

But the Ministry of Health said a new version of the app is being released later this week.

New features on the app include a dashboard showing how many days out of the past 14 you’ve used the app; a dashboard showing figures on how many New Zealanders are using the app – the same as the figures released regularly by the ministry; and a flashlight option for scanning in low light conditions – which the ministry said would be useful for the winter months ahead.

"Thank you to everyone who is using the app regularly and who has turned on Bluetooth tracing. Bluetooth tracing is now enabled on more than 1.2 million devices," the Ministry of Health said in a statement today.

"We’ve seen the value of the app when we’ve had cases of Covid-19 in the community."

Today's update comes a day after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a date for a trans-Tasman travel bubble — 11.59pm on April 18.

Government's decision brings New Zealand into line with Australia's border settings, and means people can flow freely between the two countries for the first time since the onset of Covid-19.