Testing for COVID-19

Information on lab testing and capacity and testing rates by ethnicity and DHB.

Last updated 1pm 23 February 2021.

All data on this page is as at 9:00 am on 23 February 2021 unless otherwise stated.

Change to the updating schedule for this page

Data on this page is now updated daily.

Data is collected from the EpiSurv database (administered by ESR) unless otherwise stated.

On this page:

Testing summary, status, and results
Testing over the past 4 weeks
Testing rate and results by location and ethnicity
Testing rate and results by age and gender
New Zealand's approach to COVID-19 testing

See also:

How testing works - Unite against COVID-19

Testing summary, status, and results

COVID-19 viral testing
People tested	Test results delivered in past 24 hours	Test results delivered during past week
People who travelled internationally	1131	7435
People working at the border, in managed facilities, or near people travelling internationally	420	6676
Within New Zealand, not linked to the border	2514	56064
Other	58	499
Total	4123	70674

COVID-19 testing status
	Total
All COVID-19 viral tests administered*	1,666,446
Testing kits in stock (updated weekdays only)	187,051

* Covers the period from 22 January 2020 (first test in New Zealand) to 23 February 2021. Note that some people are tested more than once.

Testing results from 22 January 2020* to 23 February 2021
Test results	In managed facilities	Within NZ communities	Total
Tested positive for COVID-19	808	1937	2745
Tested negative (no COVID-19)	195350	1468098	1663448
Inconclusive result for COVID-19	5	248	253
Total (all tests)	196163	1470283	1666446

* First test for COVID-19 in New Zealand was on 22 January 2020. Note that some people are tested more than once.

Number of tests for COVID-19 — Daily number of tests completed for COVID-19 (with seven-day rolling average)

Testing over the past 4 weeks

Tests at managed facilities and within the community in district health boards (DHBs)
DHB of Patient Domicile	25 Jan to 31 Jan	1 Feb to 7 Feb	8 Feb to 14 Feb	15 Feb to 21 Feb
Managed isolation and quarantine facilities	7630	7249	7328	7240
Auckland	5264	3145	3039	7938
Bay of Plenty	1090	780	762	1855
Canterbury	2475	2103	1958	4140
Capital and Coast	1174	977	892	2580
Counties Manukau	5032	3360	3649	22238
Hawkes Bay	359	370	319	1031
Hutt Valley	391	311	254	921
Lakes	463	317	332	937
MidCentral	592	527	392	1160
Nelson Marlborough	458	452	367	843
Northland	4429	430	420	1146
South Canterbury	140	114	132	319
Southern	1105	781	878	2070
Tairāwhiti	143	119	132	354
Taranaki	418	281	221	1739
Waikato	1585	1027	1117	4111
Wairarapa	101	77	90	209
Waitematā	10390	3456	3154	8306
West Coast	60	36	29	64
Whanganui	113	109	73	431
Unknown	1967	1588	1515	2738
Total	45379	27609	27053	72370

Note: some people are tested more than once. We cannot give you detailed information about tests in your district, city or town, as we must protect the privacy of the people concerned.

Tests by ethnicity
Ethnicity	25 Jan to 31 Jan	1 Feb to 7 Feb	8 Feb to 14 Feb	15 Feb to 21 Feb
Maori	5687	2706	2846	10829
Pacific peoples	3680	2694	2859	11546
Asian	7317	4616	4390	12886
European/Other	24025	13346	12655	31406
Unknown	4670	4247	4303	5703
Total	45379	27609	27053	72370

Tests in managed isolation and quarantine
Test result	25 Jan to 31 Jan	1 Feb to 7 Feb	8 Feb to 14 Feb	15 Feb to 21 Feb
Tested positive for COVID-19	35	35	24	21
Tested negative (no COVID-19)	7595	7214	7304	7219
Inconclusive result for COVID-19	0	0	0	0

Tests within NZ communities
Test result	25 Jan to 31 Jan	1 Feb to 7 Feb	8 Feb to 14 Feb	15 Feb to 21 Feb
Tested positive for COVID-19	10	9	9	11
Tested negative (no COVID-19)	37735	20348	19716	65119
Inconclusive result for COVID-19	4	3	0	0

Total tests
Test result	25 Jan to 31 Jan	1 Feb to 7 Feb	8 Feb to 14 Feb	15 Feb to 21 Feb
Tested positive for COVID-19	45	44	33	32
Tested negative (no COVID-19)	45330	27562	27020	72338
Inconclusive result for COVID-19	4	3	0	0

Testing rate and results by location and ethnicity

All tests by DHB and in managed isolation and quarantine facilities from 22 January 2020 to 23 February 2021
Location	Total tests	Tested positive (%)	Test rate per 1000 people
Managed isolation and quarantine facilities	196163	0.41%	NA
Auckland	208155	0.15%	371.38
Bay of Plenty	57604	0.09%	235.55
Canterbury	125331	0.12%	215.11
Capital and Coast	82965	0.16%	255.03
Counties Manukau	267538	0.09%	461.4
Hawkes Bay	33423	0.14%	199.08
Hutt Valley	30535	0.08%	201.11
Lakes	30595	0.04%	273.99
MidCentral	37510	0.1%	205.41
Nelson Marlborough	30010	0.11%	196.16
Northland	41308	0.08%	224.56
South Canterbury	10503	0.21%	174.6
Southern	69149	0.39%	205.11
Tairāwhiti	11839	0.04%	239.52
Taranaki	24607	0.05%	202.2
Waikato	103285	0.19%	240.72
Wairarapa	8703	0.05%	188.69
Waitematā	232174	0.13%	359.99
West Coast	3127	0.16%	97.9
Whanganui	11849	0.03%	182.13
Unknown	50073	0.1%	NA
Total	1666446	0.16%	282.39

Tests by ethnicity from 22 January 2020 to 23 February 2021
Ethnicity*	Total test	Tested positive (%)	Test rate per 1000 people
Māori	236047	0.09%	298.29
Pacific peoples	192754	0.11%	592.37
Asian	235992	0.17%	294.16
European/Other	888207	0.19%	285.57
Unknown	113446	0.22%	NA
Total	1666446	0.16%	308.79

* The prioritised ethnicity classification system is used in this table and below. This means each person is allocated to a single ethnic group, based on the ethnic groups they identify with. Where people identify with more than one group, they are assigned in this order of priority: Māori, Pacific Peoples, Asian, and European/Other. So, if a person identifies as being Māori and New Zealand European, the person is counted as Māori. See Ngā tapuae me ngā raraunga: Methods and data sources for further information.

The data categorized by ethnicity come from National Health Index (NHI) data collection, linked to data held in the EpiSurv database.

Testing rates per 1000 people by location and ethnicity from 22 January 2020 to 23 February 2021
Location	Māori	Pacific peoples	Asian	European/Other
Auckland	406.97	551.62	259.79	405.97
Bay of Plenty	257.01	440.57	162.14	230.41
Canterbury	210.74	281.54	197.12	214.15
Capital and Coast	254.17	302.32	171.2	267.18
Counties Manukau	458.93	767.61	352.88	360.9
Hawke's Bay	203.21	377.01	131.41	191.61
Hutt Valley	197.09	251.84	165.91	202.13
Lakes	295.45	422.89	227.33	258.3
MidCentral	198.7	263.11	131.06	211.94
Nelson Marlborough	206.27	414.26	142.03	192.55
Northland	251.21	246.3	165.76	212.27
South Canterbury	174.81	495.85	171.45	170.98
Southern	188.88	300.99	153.57	208.72
Tairāwhiti	258.73	312.29	239.54	212.8
Taranaki	201.5	287.87	195.29	199.9
Waikato	269.44	331.09	201.82	227.15
Wairarapa	198.64	322.31	203.52	181.19
Waitematā	376.09	539.02	287.61	362.2
West Coast	90.96	196.52	134.47	96.16
Whanganui	179.78	241.06	133.64	183.49
Total	280.76	555.97	252.26	259.53

Note: some people are tested more than once. We cannot give you detailed information about tests in your district, city or town, as we must protect the privacy of the people concerned.

Percentage of tests returning a positive result by DHB and ethnicity from 22 January to 23 February 2021
Location	Māori	Pacific peoples	Asian	European/Other
Auckland	0.07	0.19	0.13	0.15
Bay of Plenty	0.04	0	0.15	0.1
Canterbury	0.05	0.2	0.1	0.12
Capital and Coast	0.04	0	0.11	0.2
Counties Manukau	0.02	0.07	0.1	0.12
Hawke's Bay	0.03	0.16	0.23	0.17
Hutt Valley	0.13	0	0	0.09
Lakes	0.03	0	0.04	0.05
MidCentral	0.05	0	0	0.12
Nelson Marlborough	0.15	0	0	0.12
Northland	0.06	0.11	0	0.1
South Canterbury	0.1	0	0.69	0.2
Southern	0.4	0.14	0.14	0.42
Tairāwhiti	0.02	0	0	0.09
Taranaki	0	0	0.08	0.06
Waikato	0.09	0.04	0.25	0.24
Wairarapa	0.06	0	0	0.05
Waitematā	0.21	0.22	0.09	0.12
West Coast	0	0	0	0.19
Whanganui	0	0	0.47	0.03
Total	0.09	0.11	0.17	0.19

Note: we cannot give the total number of people testing positive per DHB and ethnicity for privacy reasons.

Testing rate and results by age and sex

Tests by age group from 22 January to 23 February 2021
Age group	Total people tested	Tested positive (%)	Test rate per 1000 people
0 to 9	142006	0.09%	225.03
10 to 19	149779	0.14%	233.67
20 to 29	310988	0.2%	416.37
30 to 39	301818	0.18%	442.56
40 to 49	242252	0.16%	397.88
50 to 59	237008	0.16%	373.53
60 to 69	169749	0.16%	317.39
70 to 79	77274	0.14%	212.56
80+	35571	0.16%	190.54
Unknown	1	0%	NA
Total	1666446	0.16%	331.35

Tests by sex from 22 January to 23 February 2021
Sex	Total people tested	Tested positive (%)	Test rate per 1000 people
Female	849323	0.16%	333.82
Male	717827	0.18%	288.86
Unknown	99296	0.08%	NA
Total	1666446	0.16%	311.6

New Zealand's approach to COVID-19 testing

New Zealand has a goal of eliminating COVID-19. Planned, targeted testing is one of the tools that can help meet this goal. We don't test without planning.

COVID-19 is a new disease, so we had to build a completely new testing capability.