WELLINGTON, March 31 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand reported 48 new confirmed and 10 probable cases of the COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing the total number of confirmed and probable infections to 647 in the country.
There were no additional deaths and 74 people had recovered, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield from the Ministry of Health said at a press conference.
"Whilst this is a drop in the number, I have no sense that this is a drop overall, our expectation is the number of cases will continue to increase over the next seven to ten days," Bloomfield said.
Overseas travel has still been considered as the main reason for most of the infections in New Zealand, with 53 percent of the new cases linked to overseas travel, he added.
Nearly a third of the new cases are close contacts of people who have been infected, Bloomfield said.
New Zealand entered the national lockdown last Wednesday.
Meanwhile, a series of mathematical models warning of the consequences for the lack of early action to prevent the spread of COVID-19, published by the Ministry of Health, reinforced the importance of the current lockdown and other government measures.
"The modelling shows that without the actions currently being taken, the uncontrolled spread of COVID-19 would exact a high price in New Zealand in terms of its impact on our health services, including our intensive care units, and deaths," Bloomfield said.
New Zealand's island nation status, low population density and limited mass public transport may all help reduce the impact here, he said.
The impact and effectiveness of the measures announced by the government, including lockdown, closed border, internal travel restrictions, work closures, hygiene practices, greater physical distancing and testing, contact tracing and isolation, all play a critical role in reducing the impact on the health and wellbeing of New Zealanders, he added.
