Hawke's Bay's most recent Covid-19 case has been linked to the cruise ship, Ruby Princess.

This means the region now has two confirmed cases directly linked to passengers off the ship who stopped and toured the region on 15 March.

The first case was reported by the Ministry of Health on Thursday 26 March.

Hawke's Bay DHB Medical Officer Nick Jones said the person is in Hawke's Bay Hospital, where "every appropriate protocol has been followed".

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The person is in a stable and comfortable condition in isolation.

Dr Jones said close contacts of the case were being actively followed-up by Public Health teams and the National Contact Tracing Team

Earlier the Ministry of Health confirmed Hawke's Bay has for the second consecutive day had just the one new case of Covid-19.

The case is a male in his 70s with no recent links to overseas travel.

This ups the region's total to 12.

The update came after confirmation that New Zealand has had its first death linked to coronavirus.

The death was a woman in her 70s in Greymouth Hospital early this morning. She tested positive for the virus on Friday morning.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says this is a very sad day – but it brings home why New Zealand moved to alert level four.

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Ardern said more people would get sick – older New Zealanders are "by far" at the most risk.

Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said New Zealand has sufficient hospital capacity to deal with the outbreak.

There are 63 new Covid-19 cases in New Zealand today - 60 new confirmed and three probable cases.

On Friday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she expected the numbers to continue rising until April 6.

"Don't be disheartened when you continue to see our numbers increase," she told The Nation yesterday.

"I expect that we will have a number of cases and those cases will grow steeply because of the lag period of Covid-19."