There are zero new Covid-19 cases in the country for the second day in a row.
Achieving zero cases two days in a row was testament to New Zealanders' efforts that "we could be undeniably proud of", the Prime Minister says.
But because of the long tail of the virus, Jacinda Ardern urged Kiwis to double-down.
"Don't do anything that snatches our potential victory at this point."
Having zero new cases for a second day was "very encouraging" and all New Zealanders should feel pleased with their efforts, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said.
"I certainly do."
The total number of cases has decreased by one to 1486 after a probable case was reclassed, he said.
There are no additional deaths to report.
He said the worst thing we could do is "blow the whistle too early" and urged Kiwis to continue to stay the course.
There are 179 people in quarantine, he said.
Just over 1300 people have recovered - 88 percent of the total number of Covid-19 cases.
Four people are in hospital, none in the Southern DHB area.
Of the SDHB's 216 total cases, 205 had recovered, two had died, meaning nine were still active as of this morning, Ministry of Health data shows.
Dr Bloomfield said there had been about 6000 returned travellers that had gone into quarantine or managed isolation since 28 March.
He said 179 of those were still in quarantine facilities and just under 2800 people were in managed isolation.
In a media release the ministry said there were still 16 significant clusters in New Zealand, with three now closed as previously reported.
One existing cluster - St Margaret’s Hospital and Rest Home in Auckland - has today had five cases newly linked to it. However, these are not new cases.
Following investigations, an existing group of cases has been linked to the St Margaret’s cluster, the ministry said.
PM joins Australian Cabinet meeting
On patching into the Australian national Cabinet meeting, Ms Ardern said the last New Zealand Prime Minister to join that meeting was Peter Fraser.
Both countries stand to benefit from allowing travel between the two countries, Ardern said, for economic relations and for those whose families and friendship stretched across the Tasman.
A statement will be issued at the end of the national Cabinet meeting about what was discussed.
Ms Ardern said that Australia has now had an uptake in numbers showed that it "doesn't take much for the situation to change.
There were a lot of similarities between Australia and New Zealand and so both were enthusiastic about a transtasman bubble, she said.
This was not to get ahead of a decision because there were still limits on inter-state travel.
When both countries were confident they would neither import nor export cases was when the borders could open.
For Kiwis in Australia, Ms Ardern said they could come home but they would still have to go into quarantine but they were considering how it would work in the future.
The transtasman bubble would give a sense of normality to New Zealanders, if we could make it work, she said.
She couldn't give any more clarity on timeframes as she was waiting for the meeting in Australia to end.
- additional reporting RNZ/ODT Online
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Comments
It's quite clear this virus was massively overblown by the media, and the only people at risk are those in the community with severe illness and immunity dysfunction.
Almost all of our deaths in New Zealand have been in the over EIGHTY age bracket, ALL with severe comorbidities. While tragic, these were not unexpected deaths of healthy, robust people.
To continue running our nation into the ground now out of fear, delaying routine medical and dental care to our citizens and proper education to our children, borders on criminal.
It's time to end this lockdown. End it, and never bring it back. Quarantine is for the sick, not the healthy.