There are now five New Zealanders who have tested positive for coronavirus, the Ministry of Health has confirmed.

The Ministry's director-general of health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, provided an update on the response to Covid-19 on Saturday afternoon.

At a press conference, Bloomfield confirmed there was now a fifth positive case - a woman in her 40s. She was the partner of the third case - a man also in his 40s, from Auckland.

This was fitting the pattern of spread within existing families, Bloomfield said, with most human-to-human transmission happening within families.

MONIQUE FORD/STUFF The Ministry of Health's director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield will provide a coronavirus update on Saturday.

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The woman was in self-isolation at home and has been since earlier in the week. Like three of the other cases, this person did not require hospital level care.

Casual contact tracing was also under way and close contacts were already in self isolation, Bloomfield said.

This new case joins four others including a person who travelled from Iran, a mother in her 30s who travelled from Italy, her husband, and the first locally-transmitted case – the man in his 40s who works for NZ steel, whose family recently travelled from Iran.

THE CASES IN BRIEF

Bloomfield said the ministry was actively trying to find further sporadic cases.

The ministry had completed 218 tests, five of which were positive. There were two other probable cases - the woman in North Shore Hospital and the grandfather in the same house as cases three and five.

At the media conference, Bloomfield also gave an update about the close and casual contacts of some of those infected.

Case one was a person in their 60s who travelled from Iran who would soon be discharged from Auckland Hospital. There were 26 close contacts and 126 casual contacts of this person.

Case two: a woman who travelled from northern Italy had 100 close contacts, all of who were in self-isolation and were being monitored. There were over 300 casual contacts. These casual contacts do not have to self isolate, they just need to be aware of symptoms.

Case three: a man in his 40s has just 18 close contacts and seven casual contacts.

Case four: the partner of case two, had eight close contacts.

For case five, close contacts were still being identified.

TicketMaster and Spark Arena had worked to get in touch with all people who may have been close to case four - a man in his 40s - who went to the Tool concert in Auckland.

TWO PROBABLE CASES

The father of the third person to test positive is also being treated as a probable case. His test results have not yet come back. The fifth person to test positive is also in this household.

On Friday, the health ministry was advised of eight Kiwis who were onboard a quarantined cruise ship docked off California, the Grand Princess. All are back in New Zealand, Bloomfield said.

Five were well and were outside of the 14 day period of concern. Of the other three, one woman in her 70s was in hospital.

This woman had previously been admitted to hospital for a respiratory illness on February 25. She recovered and was discharged in early March.

She is now back in hospital for an unrelated condition, Bloomfield said.

She has been tested for coronavirus and the results came back negative. However, Bloomfield said medical staff believe that when the woman was first admitted to hospital with the respiratory illness she was a probable case.

Although her results have been negative for Covid-19, Bloomfield said she was being treated as a probable case, and they were taking precautions.

A number of staff at North Shore Hospital were being regarded as close contacts and were being stood down as a precautionary measure.

MONIQUE FORD / STUFF There are now five New Zealanders who have tested positive for coronavirus, Dr Bloomfield confirmed.

Over 80 staff had been identified as dealing with the woman - 43 have been identified as close contacts and are now in self isolation for 14 days since they treated her. None of these staff are symptomatic, Bloomfield said.

The two other Kiwi passengers from the cruise ship have mild symptoms. They have been tested, and are in self-isolation. One of them has returned a negative result, and the other result was "pending", Bloomfield said.

The woman in her 70s, who is in North Shore Hospital, travelled back to New Zealand from San Francisco on February 25 on Air New Zealand flight NZ7.

Anyone on the flight considered a close contact would be contacted by public health staff. They would be asked to go into self-isolation for three days, as they have already been in New Zealand for 11 days, Bloomfield said.

FAMILY CONNECTIONS

Details of the fourth positive test - a man in his 30s - were revealed on Friday.

He was the partner of the second person to test positive for the virus - an Auckland woman who travelled recently in Italy.

She is also a New Zealand citizen in her 30s. The couple are in self isolation at home.

The man also attended the Tool concert at Spark Arena in Auckland last Friday when he may have been infectious, the Ministry of Health has said.

The third person to test positive is a man in his 40s from Auckland who is in self isolation at home with other family members. It's possible he contracted the virus from a family member, in what was the first transmission within New Zealand.

The man's father was also being tested for the virus, at this stage he is being treated as a probable case and is being monitored by health professionals.

While the country's first confirmed case of the virus was a person in their 60s who is in isolation at Auckland City Hospital.

On Saturday, Bloomfield said this patient was likely to be discharged from hospital in future.

Globally, there are now more than 100,000 infected people, and nearly 3400 deaths.

GETTING TESTED

Meanwhile, the ministry was ramping up its public information campaign, Bloomfield said. Posters would start to pop up around the place, he said.

On Thursday, the ministry's technical advisory group met, where advice for dealing with coronavirus was updated, he said.

As part of the process with close contacts, inside the family home, anyone symptomatic would be tested. Asymptomatic family members would also be offered tests, he said.

Bloomfield was asked about whether drive-through testing could be introduced in New Zealand - where people are tested for coronavirus from their cars.

A drive-through pop up testing centre had been set up in Wales, and was expected to be the first of many. South Korea had also launched drive through testing.

He said nothing was off the table, however noted that not everyone has a car. He reiterated the importance of people ringing Healthline.