COVID-19

Five are in the community and related to the Auckland cluster and one is an imported case.

Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says the imported case is a woman in her 50s who arrived on 14 August and has been in the Sudima Hotel.

He says there are five people in hospital, one in Auckland City and one in Middlemore.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says there are no additional cases related to the Rydges Hotel maintenance worker who tested positive for Covid-19.

That brings the total number of Covid-19 cases in New Zealand to 1299.

However, these tests are outside the government’s mandatory testing requirements and therefore fees will apply to cover lab testing and doctor’s consultation fees.

This new requirement was highlighted today in this week’s situational update on COVID-19 by President Lionel Aingimea.

President Aingimea says Nauru remains free of coronavirus but elsewhere in the region the virus isn’t slowing down.

The inquiry also heard guards at quarantine hotels were given "inappropriate" training advice.

Australian media report that guards were told masks and other protection would not be necessary, as long as they adhered to 1.5m social distancing.

Victoria is currently in lockdown because of a second wave of infections.

Stricter "stage four" restrictions were put in place in the city of Melbourne on 2 August for six weeks.

Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said there were no new cases to report from managed isolation.

The one new case that remains under investigation is in addition to the one case yesterday that is being investigated.

"But in both cases we feel quite confident that they will be linked to the outbreak."

He said 54 people linked to the cluster have been moved to a quarantine facility, including 24 of the people who have tested positive.

The seven new cases reported today bring the total number of confirmed cases to 1258.

Official data on Thursday showed there were 292 new infections in the past 24 hours, down from 428 on Wednesday.

It is the lowest daily total since 20 July. Victoria had by far the most infections - 278. Its capital Melbourne began its shutdown on 3 August.

Health Minister Greg Hunt voiced cautious optimism about the new data.

"We now believe, cautiously, that we have early signs of the flattening of the curve," he said.

It comes as the state recorded one new case of coronavirus overnight.

The 68-year-old Queensland woman was diagnosed with the virus in the past 24 hours and authorities are still investigating the source of the infection.

Two historic cases have also been added to the state's total of 1,088 cases.

The hotspot declaration means anyone travelling from NSW or the nation's capital will soon be banned from entering the Sunshine State.

Queenslanders who return after travelling there will be sent to mandatory hotel quarantine for 14 days at their own expense.

There are 13,005 cumulative cases in Victoria, with 12 of the 15 deaths were associated with aged care.

The deaths were:

One male in his 30s

Three males and one female in their 70s

Three males, three females in their 80s

Three males, one female in their 90s

There are 538 people in hospital and 42 of those people are receiving intensive care.

There are 7227 total active cases and total active cases with a connection to aged care are some 1435.

Money sent to Asia, where about a third of migrant workers worldwide come from, could fall by US$54.3 billion, or about a fifth of baseline remittances, the Manila-based lender said in the report released on Monday.

Remittances to Asia and the Pacific, which amounted to US$315 billion in 2019, help fuel the consumption-led growth for some of the region’s developing economies, including the Philippines.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to hit remittances hard in Asia and the Pacific,” the ADB report said.

Premier Daniel Andrews said 671 new coronavirus cases had been detected since yesterday and seven more people had died.

Six of the deaths have a connection to aged care.

Andrews said there was an "unacceptably high" number of community transmission cases, and the state had 760 active "mystery" Covid-19 infections where the source of the transmission was not known.

"Those mysteries, that community transmission, is in many respects our biggest challenge and the reason why we need to move to a different set of rules," he said.

Last night, the 200 passengers on the Paul Gauguin were asked to stay in their cabins and the ship bound for Rangiroa returned to Tahiti.

Local media said all on board would need to be tested.

There has been no official statement about the situation.

Cruises resumed two weeks ago.

In mid-July, French Polynesia became the first destination in the South Pacific to accept travellers without imposing any quarantine.