New Zealand

The first case is a woman in her 20s who arrived in New Zealand on 3 July from India. She has been staying in isolation at the Stamford Plaza in Auckland.

The second is a man in his 30s who arrived in New Zealand on 4 July from Italy and who is at the Commodore Hotel in Christchurch. The third is a man in his 20s who arrived in New Zealand on 3 July from India, and has also been at the Stamford Plaza.

In a statement, the Health Ministry said it had now been 69 days since the last case of Covid-19 was acquired locally from an unknown source.

Hipkins said the 32-year-old man, who arrived from India on 3 July, left his managed isolation last night to go to the Countdown supermarket on Victoria Street in central Auckland.

The man was outside the facility for 70 minutes.

Hipkins said after CCTV footage was viewed and the man was interviewed, the current assessment of the risk to the public was low.

"The person wore a mask although indicated that was removed for short periods of time."

In a statement, Countdown said the supermarket closed for cleaning at 8.15 this morning and will reopen tomorrow.

The $US7.3 million 'Impact programme,' to which New Zealand's foreign ministry will contribute about $US5.6 million, targets children, youth and their families in

Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Solomon Islands over the next five years.

ChildFund New Zealand's chief executive Paul Brown said he was "very pleased" 18 months spent developing a proposal for the ministry's "negotiated partnership scheme" had come to fruition.

The new cases are a woman in her 20s and a woman in her 30s, both from the same family, who arrived 2 July from Afghanistan. Both women were staying at the Sudima Hotel in Christchurch.

They each tested positive from the tests taken on day three after arrival, Hipkins said.

It had been 67 days since the last case of local transmission from an unknown source, Hipkins said.

Tournaments in London, Paris, Singapore and Hong Kong were cancelled on the men's tour, while the women's circuit lost rounds in the United States, Paris and Hong Kong.

"While it is very disappointing for players, fans, organisers and everyone involved ... the health and wellbeing of the rugby community and wider society remains the number one priority," World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont said in a statement.

There was no media conference from the ministry today.

In a statement, the Ministry of Health said there were no new cases of the coronavirus, so total confirmed cases remained at 1178, with confirmed and probable cases combined totalling 1528.

The last time there were no new cases was on 19 June.

One person remained in Auckland City Hospital in a stable condition. There had been no recoveries since the previous day, the ministry reported, so the number of active cases was still 22.

A statement said they discussed New Zealand and Nauru’s respective responses to COVID-19.

President Aingimea thanked New Zealand for the support it had provided to Nauru for managing its response to the pandemic.

Minister Peters and President Aingimea discussed the importance of multilateral and regional institutions, including to address issues faced collectively by the Pacific region.

Both agreed the two countries would keep in close contact to advance the bilateral relationship and enhance regional trade.

Their joint proposal beat a rival bid from Colombia to host the tournament which is being expanded to 32 teams.

Japan, who had also put forward a bid to stage the event, pulled out on Monday after they were ranked below the joint bid by world governing body FIFA's evaluation report.

The report highlighted the infrastructure and organisational advantages of the Australia/New Zealand bid which FIFA believed would make for a commercially successful tournament.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand was honoured to have been selected as co-hosts.

Wellington's response follows Fiji's announcement this week that it was hoping to establish a tourism bubble with Australia and New Zealand, to attract visitors.

Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said tourists could be contained and prevented from mixing with locals.

"VIP lanes - starting on the airplane, then from Nadi Airport onto designated transport to their designated resort or hotel where they'll remain throughout their stay", Mr Bainimarama said.

Fiji was identifying geographically-isolated resorts best suited for the Bula Bubble, he said.

The latest infection brings New Zealand's active case total to 11.

The new case is a woman in her 60s, who returned a positive test result while in managed isolation. She arrived in New Zealand on June 18 and travelled on an Air India repatriation flight, code AI1316. She had been staying at the Pullman Hotel in Auckland and was transferred to the Jet Park Hotel - which is operating as a quarantine facility - as per Ministry of Health protocol on Tuesday afternoon.