Covid 19 coronavirus: NZ's 16th straight day of no new cases

New Zealand has no new Covid-19 cases for a 16th straight day.

The country's total of confirmed and probable cases remains at 1504, the Ministry of Health confirmed this afternoon.

One person continues to be an active case of the virus, an Auckland woman aged in her 50s.

There is no one receiving hospital care for Covid-19.

The number of recovered cases is unchanged at 1481.

The death toll is unchanged at 22.

Yesterday, 2054 Covid tests were processed, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 294,048.

Eight significant clusters have closed, which is unchanged from yesterday.

A cluster is considered closed if there have been no new cases for two incubation periods - 28 days - from the date when all cases have completed isolation.

There have now been 517,000 downloads of the Covid Tracer app, an increase of 5300 since yesterday.

The Ministry of Health said it had simplified the process for businesses to create QR codes after getting feedback.

"We continue to encourage as many people as possible to download and use the app," the ministry said in a statement.

"This will support our contact tracing efforts including when we move to level 1."

The Ministry of Health yesterday welcomed the latest guidance on the use of masks from the World Health Organisation.

That guidance was consistent with the ministry's current advice that "mass-masking" was not required.

"The WHO emphasises that masks should be part of a comprehensive strategy and that much of their updated guidance relates to countries with a high degree of community transmission," the ministry said in a statement.