This article documents the timeline of transmission of COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand throughout the first half of 2020. All of the following dates and times are in New Zealand Time; NZST (UTC+12) from 5 April to 26 September 2020, and NZDT (UTC+13) otherwise.
Upon its introduction, the nationwide alert level was initially set at level 2 on 21 March, but was subsequently raised to level 3 on the afternoon of 23 March. Beginning on 26 March, the alert level was moved to level 4, putting the country into a nationwide lockdown. The alert level was lowered to level 3 on 27 April, partially lifting some lockdown restrictions, and down to level 2 on 13 May, lifting the rest of the lockdown restrictions while maintaining physical distancing and gathering size limits. The country moved down to level 1 on 8 June, removing all remaining restrictions except border controls.
On 11 August, four cases of COVID-19 from an unknown source were reported in Auckland, the first from an unknown source in 102 days. At noon the following day, the Auckland Region moved up to alert level 3, while the rest of the country was moved to level 2. On 30 August at 11:59 pm, Auckland moved down to "alert level 2.5", a modified version of alert level 2 with limitation on public gatherings, funerals, and weddings. On 23 September at 11:59 pm, Auckland moved down to alert level 2, after the rest of New Zealand moved to alert level 1 on 21 September at 11:59pm. On 7 October, Auckland also moved down to level 1.
Transmission timeline
Data about the previous day is extracted from the Institute of Environmental Science and Research's database at 9:00 am daily and is publicly released by the Ministry of Health around 1:00 pm. In late December, data was released every three days instead.
February 2020 On 21 February, a person who had been to Italy visited family in Waikato, and developed symptoms of COVID-19 upon arrival in New Zealand. At the time, they did not meet the testing criteria, as they had not visited or transited through China. The person is thought to have infected their family, who developed symptoms on 29 February. The person who visited their family was later retroactively diagnosed with COVID-19 on 23 September.
On 28 February, New Zealand confirmed its first case: a New Zealand citizen in her 60s who had recently visited Iran, returning via Bali, Indonesia, and arriving in New Zealand on 26 February at Auckland. She had two tests for COVID-19 that were negative, but a third test using a more specific sample was positive. She was admitted to Auckland City Hospital. New Zealand was the 48th country to have a confirmed case of COVID-19. Also on 28 February, the Government extended the travel restrictions to include travellers coming from Iran.
March 2020
On 4 March, a New Zealand woman in her 30s who had returned from northern Italy on 25 February was confirmed as the second case of the virus in New Zealand. She had flown into Auckland via Singapore, and subsequently caught domestic flights to and from Palmerston North on 2 March. Her partner also displayed symptoms of the virus, and was confirmed as the fourth case on 6 March.
On 5 March, the third confirmed New Zealand case and the first case of local transmission was reported. An Auckland man in his 40s was infected with COVID-19 by a family member who had returned from Iran on 23 February. Three other members of his family had previously been unwell. Two family members had arrived in New Zealand from Iran on 23 February. On 7 March, a fifth case was announced, a woman in her 40s who was the partner of the third case. One of the family members who had returned from Iran was the father of the third case, and is considered a probable case.
On 6 March, the Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said that eight people from New Zealand had been passengers on the 11–21 February cruise of Grand Princess from San Francisco to Mexico and back and may have been in contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19. All eight had already returned to New Zealand. One was a woman in her 70s who had been in the hospital for respiratory illness and was discharged and is considered a probable case.
On 10 March, the National Crisis Management Centre was activated.
On 14 March, a sixth confirmed case was announced, an Auckland man in his 60s who had recently returned from the United States. He went into self isolation.
On 15 March, two more cases were confirmed, bringing the total number of infected in New Zealand to eight. The seventh case was a man who travelled from Australia to Wellington. The eighth case was of a woman who was a visitor from Denmark arriving in Auckland via Doha and then Christchurch, before driving on towards Queenstown, where she became ill and was hospitalised.
On 17 March, four more cases were confirmed, bringing the total number of infected in New Zealand to 12. The ninth and tenth cases were a Wellington man and his father, who had travelled back from the United States. The eleventh case was a man from Dunedin, who had travelled back from Germany. The twelfth case was a Dunedin high school student who was the son of the eleventh case.
On 18 March, the Ministry of Health confirmed that New Zealand had eight new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 20. Four of these new cases were in Auckland, two in the Waikato region, one in Christchurch, and one in Invercargill.
On 19 March, the Ministry of Health confirmed another eight new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 28. Two of the new cases were in Auckland, two in Taranaki, one in Dunedin, one in Queenstown, one in Northland, and one in Rotorua.
On 20 March, the Ministry of Health confirmed 11 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 39: five in Auckland, two in Waikato, two in Wellington, one in Canterbury, and one in Hawke's Bay. All new cases were associated with overseas travel.
On 21 March, 13 new cases were confirmed, bringing the total to 52. For two of the cases, no link to overseas travel had been discovered and the Ministry of Health was continuing to investigate.
On 22 March, 14 new cases were confirmed, bringing the total to 66. 11 of the new cases had a history of international travel. Two of the other cases had attended the World Hereford Conference in Queenstown, which was held on 9–13 March and had New Zealand and international delegates.
On 23 March, 36 new cases were confirmed, bringing the total to 102. This number includes two suspected community-spread cases, which prompted the Prime Minister to declare that New Zealand would enter alert level 3, effective immediately, during the health ministry briefing from 1:40 pm.
On 24 March, 40 new cases were confirmed, out of 1400 tests processed. From this date on, probable cases will be included in the numbers of cases, bringing the total number of cases to 155. These figures also include four cases of community transmission; three in Auckland and one in Wairarapa.
On 25 March, 50 new cases were reported, including probable cases, bringing the total number of confirmed and probable cases to 205. A national state of emergency was declared by Civil Defence Minister Peeni Henare at 12:21 pm in Parliament before the country entered alert level 4 at 11:59 pm. This state of emergency was declared for seven days; but, was announced with the possibility of being extended.
On 26 March, a further 78 confirmed and probable cases were reported, bringing the total to 283. A total of 27 people have now recovered from the virus. In addition, it was reported that 168 New Zealand travellers were in quarantine.
On 27 March, 85 new confirmed and probable cases were reported, bringing the total to 368.
On 28 March, health authorities reported 83 new cases including 78 confirmed and 5 probable cases, bringing the total to 451. Air New Zealand also confirmed that several of its staff had tested positive for the coronavirus.
On 29 March, 60 new confirmed and 3 new probable cases were reported, bringing the total of confirmed and probable cases to 514 (476 confirmed and 38 probable). A total of 56 people have recovered. The first coronavirus-related death in New Zealand was reported on this day. The individual was a woman in her 70s from the West Coast region.
On 30 March, 76 more confirmed cases were reported and one previous probable case was confirmed negative, bringing the total number of confirmed and probable cases to 589 (552 confirmed and 37 probable). On this day it was also reported that the total number of confirmed community-spread cases was 10, or around 2% of the total, and that 57% of confirmed cases are directly related to overseas travel and 27% are close contacts of a confirmed case. Five new recoveries were reported, bringing the total to 63. Additionally, 12 people were in hospital, with 2 being in intensive care.
On 31 March, 58 new confirmed and probable cases were reported, bringing the total to 647 (600 confirmed and 47 probable), and 11 new recoveries were reported, bringing the total to 74.
April 2020
Date Cases Recoveries Deaths Hospitalisations Sources New Total New Total New Total Change Total1 61 708 8 82 0 1 — — 2 89 797 10 92 0 1 0 13 3 71 868 11 103 0 1 0 13 4 52 950 24 127 0 1 0 10 5 89 1,039 29 156 0 1 0 15 6 67 1,106 20 176 0 1 0 13 7 54 1,160 65 241 0 1 0 12 8 50 1,210 41 282 0 1 0 12 9 29 1,239 35 317 0 1 2 14 10 44 1,283 56 373 1 2 2 16 11 29 1,312 49 422 2 4 -1 15 12 18 1,330 49 471 0 4 -1 14 13 19 1,064 75 546 1 5 1 15 14 17 1,366 82 628 4 9 0 15 15 20 1,386 100 728 0 9 -2 13 16 15 1,401 42 770 0 9 -1 12 17 8 1,409 46 816 2 11 2 14 18 13 1,422 51 867 0 11 6 20 19 9 1,431 45 912 1 12 -2 18 20 9 1,440 62 974 0 12 -4 14 21 5 1,445 32 1,006 1 13 -2 12 22 6 1,451 30 1,036 1 14 -1 11 23 3 1,451 29 1,065 2 16 -3 8 24 5 1,456 30 1,095 1 17 0 8 25 5 1,461 23 1,118 1 18 -1 7 26 9 1,470 24 1,142 0 18 0 7 27 5 1,469 38 1,180 1 19 0 7 28 3 1,472 34 1,214 0 19 2 9 29 2 1,474 15 1,229 0 19 -3 6 30 3 1,476 12 1,241 0 19 1 7
On 1 April, it was reported that the Chatham Islands, which are part of New Zealand, were facing a food shortage due to panic buying.
On 3 April, there were ten clusters of the virus, with the biggest being at Marist College in Auckland. By 3 April, over 3,600 people had been tested.
By 5 April, two new clusters were reported, one each in Auckland and Canterbury, bringing the total to 12. Ethnicity statistics were released that day: 74% of those with coronavirus were Pākehā, 8.3% Asian, 7.6% Māori, and 3.3% Pasifika. That same day, the Queen of New Zealand addressed the Commonwealth in a televised broadcast, in which she asked people to "take comfort that while we may have more still to endure, better days will return". She added, "we will be with our friends again; we will be with our families again; we will meet again".
On 9 April, compulsory quarantine for New Zealanders returning home was announced to commence by the end of the day.
On 10 April, a woman in her nineties, who was one of the Rosewood rest home cluster, was reported to have died in Christchurch the previous day.
On 11 April, two more deaths were reported: a man in his eighties in Wellington and a man in his seventies in Christchurch who was part of the Rosewood rest home cluster.
On 13 April, one further death (a man in his eighties from the Rosewood rest home cluster) was reported, bringing the total death count to five, three of whom were residents of the Rosewood rest home. Two new clusters were reported: one in a rest home in Auckland and another in a workplace in Christchurch.
On 14 April, four new deaths were reported, three of whom were from the Rosewood rest home cluster – two men in their nineties and a man in his eighties – as well as a man in his seventies in Wellington, bringing the total death toll to nine.