Passengers wear face masks as they sit on a bus in Wellington, New Zealand, Aug. 31, 2020. New Zealand reported nine new cases of COVID-19 on Monday as the largest city Auckland relaxed restrictions but required mask wearing on public transport. Face coverings such as masks became compulsory on public transport across New Zealand from Monday. (Xinhua/Guo Lei)

 
New Zealand reported three new cases of COVID-19 including one new community case on Sunday, the Director-General of Health Dr. Ashley Bloomfield provided the update in a press conference.

According to Bloomfield, the new community case is a man working on ships at ports in New Zealand, including in the past two weeks the Ports of Auckland and the Port of Taranaki. The man developed COVID-19 symptoms and was tested on Friday and the result came positive on Saturday afternoon.

However, the source of this man's infection is still being under investigation, said Bloomfield.

The man had routine fortnightly COVID-19 tests in the past months and a negative result was returned on Oct. 2.

Bloomfield downplayed the possibility of continues community transmission. "The case has been caught early. The risk of onward transmission has been quickly contained," said Bloomfield.

Bloomfield also warned the New Zealand public that vigilance was still needed even during COVID-19 Alert Level 1.

Speaking about the latest COVID-19 community case revealed on Sunday at a separate press conference, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said there was nothing in the latest case to suggest there was a need to move restriction levels.

The total number of confirmed cases in New Zealand now reached 1,530, which was the number the country reported to the World Health Organization.

The total number of active COVID-19 cases was currently 42, it is said.

Laboratories across New Zealand completed 3,390 tests for COVID-19, bringing our total number of tests completed to date to 1,030,115.

New Zealand is currently on COVID-19 Alert Level 1 with no restriction on public gatherings.