There are no new cases of Covid-19 to report in New Zealand today, for the first time since early August.

There was no media conference today. In a statement, the Health Ministry said the number of active cases had dropped to 70, with seven more people recovering from the coronavirus.

The last time the country reported zero new cases was on August 10, the day before the Auckland cluster was revealed.

There have been no new cases in the community for several days, with some imported cases reported.

Yesterday seven new cases of Covid-19 were reported in New Zealand, all managed isolation facilities, and most of them detected in day 3 testing.

A South Auckland school principal told RNZ he acted within minutes of finding out one of its pupils was positive for Covid-19. Some parents were upset that despite the positive test result on Monday afternoon they were not notified until Wednesday. But principal Vaughan van Rensburg said he first learned of the positive test on Wednesday afternoon.

In international developments, new weekly coronavirus cases in Europe have exceeded the numbers reported when the pandemic first peaked in March, the World Health Organisation has said.