Coronavirus: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says general election will still be held in September

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the date for the general election has not changed despite the vast impact COVID-19 is having on New Zealand.

In late January Ardern announced the 2020 general election will be held on September 19. 

Just two months later the entire country was put into near complete lockdown to combat the spread of COVID-19. 

New Zealand is still under stringent lockdown conditions to eradicate the disease but Ardern says there has been "no change" to the election date.

In a press conference on Thursday, she told reporters that the election is still a relatively long time away.

"The period at which we really start counting towards the election is in the short term - electoral finance starts getting monitored three months out," she said.

"So there is still time if needs be but at this point we're making good progress." 

New Zealand currently has 1129 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 347 are probable.

Eighty-four percent, or 1241, of New Zealand's COVID-19 cases have now recovered. Nineteen people have died from the virus.

There are still 16 significant clusters.