The Director-General of Health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, has provided the latest update on COVID-19 in a press conference on Wednesday.
One new imported case was detected on Tuesday, but it was later revealed that 11 people, understood to be fishermen, had tested positive for the virus while in isolation at the Sudima Christchurch Airport hotel.
Dr Bloomfield announced 25 new cases on Wednesday - 23 of which are imported. Eighteen are from the same group of Russian and Ukrainian fishermen as the 11 cases recorded yesterday. They arrived on Friday on a chartered flight from Moscow via Singapore, and were taken to the Sudima Christchurch Airport - a facility dedicated solely to that specific group. The other five are unrelated imported cases.
The additional two cases are workplace contacts of the community case who tested positive over the weekend. On Sunday, it was announced a contractor - who had recently worked on vessels at the Ports of Auckland and Taranaki - returned a positive test result.
Read all the information on Wednesday's 25 cases here.
Watch the press conference above.
