There are nine new coronavirus cases in New Zealand and one additional death. The death brings the total toll to 12 and is of a man in Invercargill who died at home and who was linked to the Bluff wedding cluster.
An Invercargill man who died from Covid-19 passed away with his wife at his side.
Alister Peter Brookland, known as Barney, died on Tuesday.
A death notice published this weekend said his wife of 48 years Joan was with him at the time.
He had a suspected case of coronavirus and today Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said a post mortem examination had confirmed the virus as the cause of death.
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Brookland's death - the first in the community - brings the total toll to 12.
He was linked to the Bluff wedding cluster.
The pensioner's death notice said he was a loved father and father-in-law and grandfather of six.
A private cremation has taken place as per Brookland's wishes.
At the daily update Bloomfield confirmed there were nine new coronavirus cases in New Zealand since yesterday.
He said the total of confirmed and probable cases in New Zealand was now 1431, and 912 people have recovered - an increase of 45 from yesterday.
There are 18 people in hospital, including one each in ICU at Middlemore, Dunedin and North Shore hospital; two are in a critical condition.
Targeted testing in Auckland, Waikato, Canterbury and Queenstown has been taking place in the past days to get a fuller picture of the prevalence of Covid-19 in those communities.
There were so far no positive results from hundreds of tests in Queenstown, Waikato or Canterbury. The Auckland tests were done yesterday and the results are expected today.
There were still 16 significant clusters of the deadly disease, with 12 more cases now linked to those clusters.
Earlier today Prime Minsiter Jacinda Ardern said she and Bloomfield discussed New Zealand cases on an individual level, where overseas thousands of cases were being tracked daily, and that made New Zealand "lucky" to be in this position.
She said New Zealand has proved that it was able to be in a position to potentially eliminate Covid-19.
There were 4146 tests processed yesterday, bringing the total number of tests conducted to 83,224.
Arden said Cabinet was meeting at 10.30am tomorrow and a decision on whether New Zealand will come out of lockdown would be announced to the public at 4pm.
She said a move to level 3 would not be a return to pre-Covid life, and the ongoing battle was a long-term one.
Returning to a normal social life would undo the good work done so far, she added.
"We are carving our own path, but I have confidence we'll make the right decision."
Criteria on which to base the decision to come out of lockdown included testing and contact tracing capacity, community transmission, border restrictions, and the capacity of the health system.
