Testing for COVID-19

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

Last updated 1pm 24 February 2021.

All data on this page is as at 9:00 am on 24 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	1252	7670
People working at the border, in managed facilities, or near people travelling internationally	929	6276
Within New Zealand, not linked to the border	5557	46616
Other	96	507
Total	7834	61069

COVID-19 testing status
	Total
All COVID-19 viral tests administered*	1,674,282
Testing kits in stock (updated weekdays only)	253,503

* Covers the period from 22 January 2020 (first test in New Zealand) to 24 February 2021. Note that some people are tested more than once.

Testing results from 22 January 2020* to 24 February 2021
Test results	In managed facilities	Within NZ communities	Total
Tested positive for COVID-19	818	1941	2759
Tested negative (no COVID-19)	196593	1474678	1671271
Inconclusive result for COVID-19	4	248	252
Total (all tests)	197415	1476867	1674282

* 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	5249	3128	3030	7916
Bay of Plenty	1088	780	762	1853
Canterbury	2475	2099	1956	4131
Capital and Coast	1173	975	890	2575
Counties Manukau	5017	3350	3632	22213
Hawkes Bay	359	368	320	1031
Hutt Valley	390	310	254	921
Lakes	464	316	333	936
MidCentral	591	525	392	1158
Nelson Marlborough	458	453	365	844
Northland	4423	428	418	1140
South Canterbury	140	114	132	319
Southern	1105	776	878	2070
Tairāwhiti	143	119	131	353
Taranaki	415	280	218	1735
Waikato	1584	1023	1109	4095
Wairarapa	101	77	90	209
Waitematā	10375	3449	3143	8288
West Coast	60	36	29	64
Whanganui	113	109	73	431
Unknown	2026	1645	1570	2848
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	5684	2705	2846	10817
Pacific peoples	3562	2577	2819	11512
Asian	7285	4586	4356	12835
European/Other	23988	13315	12630	31375
Unknown	4860	4426	4402	5831
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 24 February 2021
Location	Total tests	Tested positive (%)	Test rate per 1000 people
Managed isolation and quarantine facilities	197415	0.41%	NA
Auckland	208467	0.15%	371.93
Bay of Plenty	57710	0.08%	235.98
Canterbury	125803	0.12%	215.92
Capital and Coast	83147	0.16%	255.59
Counties Manukau	268555	0.09%	463.15
Hawkes Bay	33245	0.14%	198.02
Hutt Valley	30648	0.08%	201.85
Lakes	30669	0.04%	274.66
MidCentral	37540	0.1%	205.58
Nelson Marlborough	30052	0.11%	196.43
Northland	41340	0.08%	224.73
South Canterbury	10539	0.21%	175.19
Southern	69418	0.39%	205.91
Tairāwhiti	11843	0.03%	239.6
Taranaki	24666	0.05%	202.69
Waikato	103507	0.19%	241.23
Wairarapa	8709	0.05%	188.82
Waitematā	232718	0.13%	360.83
West Coast	3149	0.16%	98.59
Whanganui	11869	0.03%	182.44
Unknown	53273	0.09%	NA
Total	1674282	0.16%	283.06

Tests by ethnicity from 22 January 2020 to 24 February 2021
Ethnicity*	Total test	Tested positive (%)	Test rate per 1000 people
Māori	236865	0.09%	299.32
Pacific peoples	192934	0.11%	592.93
Asian	235727	0.18%	293.83
European/Other	890388	0.19%	286.27
Unknown	118368	0.21%	NA
Total	1674282	0.16%	309.37

* 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 24 February 2021
Location	Māori	Pacific peoples	Asian	European/Other
Auckland	409.09	553.33	259.8	406.7
Bay of Plenty	257.6	435.58	161.47	231.16
Canterbury	211.43	283.53	196.79	215.11
Capital and Coast	255.24	303.57	170.87	267.88
Counties Manukau	461.13	771.22	353.71	362.14
Hawke's Bay	203.73	347.26	130.58	191.66
Hutt Valley	197.7	252.77	166.32	202.97
Lakes	296.22	423.68	228.68	258.88
MidCentral	198.97	264.34	129.89	212.21
Nelson Marlborough	207.18	393.02	141.9	193.23
Northland	251.66	246.3	163.95	212.53
South Canterbury	176.27	497.85	171.06	171.54
Southern	189.82	302.69	153.39	209.63
Tairāwhiti	259.25	302.53	238.72	213.03
Taranaki	202.38	288.57	193.59	200.53
Waikato	270.49	332.04	201.46	227.63
Wairarapa	199.5	321.13	199.75	181.44
Waitematā	377.47	540.67	287.48	363.29
West Coast	91.47	200.53	134.47	96.87
Whanganui	180.41	240.42	132.08	183.84
Total	281.79	557.3	252.25	260.29

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 24 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	0.06	0.19	0.1	0.12
Capital and Coast	0.04	0	0.11	0.2
Counties Manukau	0.02	0.08	0.1	0.12
Hawke's Bay	0.03	0.18	0.24	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	0.12	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	0.06
Taranaki	0	0	0.08	0.06
Waikato	0.09	0.04	0.26	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	0.18	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 24 February 2021
Age group	Total people tested	Tested positive (%)	Test rate per 1000 people
0 to 9	142763	0.09%	226.23
10 to 19	150986	0.14%	235.55
20 to 29	312425	0.2%	418.29
30 to 39	303275	0.18%	444.7
40 to 49	243319	0.16%	399.64
50 to 59	237932	0.16%	374.99
60 to 69	170385	0.16%	318.58
70 to 79	77527	0.14%	213.25
80+	35669	0.16%	191.07
Unknown	1	0%	NA
Total	1674282	0.16%	332.9

Tests by sex from 22 January to 24 February 2021
Sex	Total people tested	Tested positive (%)	Test rate per 1000 people
Female	850916	0.16%	334.44
Male	718307	0.19%	289.05
Unknown	105059	0.08%	NA
Total	1674282	0.16%	312.02

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.