Testing for COVID-19

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

Last updated 1pm 26 February 2021.

All data on this page is as at 9:00 am on 26 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	844	7084
People working at the border, in managed facilities, or near people travelling internationally	983	5452
Within New Zealand, not linked to the border	8254	39989
Other	42	465
Total	10123	52990

COVID-19 testing status
	Total
All COVID-19 viral tests administered*	1,693,679
Testing kits in stock (updated weekdays only)	234,108

* Covers the period from 22 January 2020 (first test in New Zealand) to 26 February 2021. Note that some people are tested more than once.

Testing results from 22 January 2020* to 26 February 2021
Test results	In managed facilities	Within NZ communities	Total
Tested positive for COVID-19	822	1943	2765
Tested negative (no COVID-19)	198406	1492256	1690662
Inconclusive result for COVID-19	4	248	252
Total (all tests)	199232	1494447	1693679

* 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	7241
Auckland	5178	3075	2984	7839
Bay of Plenty	1084	769	756	1837
Canterbury	2467	2083	1949	4119
Capital and Coast	1166	970	882	2559
Counties Manukau	4987	3313	3599	22111
Hawkes Bay	357	368	319	1025
Hutt Valley	389	308	252	908
Lakes	457	312	329	928
MidCentral	593	526	394	1166
Nelson Marlborough	457	452	360	836
Northland	4415	424	415	1140
South Canterbury	139	114	130	317
Southern	1094	775	871	2064
Tairāwhiti	140	119	126	351
Taranaki	412	278	216	1731
Waikato	1571	1004	1089	4063
Wairarapa	100	77	89	209
Waitematā	10331	3423	3106	8248
West Coast	60	36	29	63
Whanganui	113	109	73	442
Unknown	2239	1825	1757	3173
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	5669	2691	2836	10795
Pacific peoples	3479	2511	2772	11434
Asian	7157	4484	4236	12663
European/Other	23909	13246	12560	31259
Unknown	5165	4677	4649	6219
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	7220
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	65118
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 26 February 2021
Location	Total tests	Tested positive (%)	Test rate per 1000 people
Managed isolation and quarantine facilities	199232	0.41%	NA
Auckland	208093	0.15%	371.27
Bay of Plenty	57444	0.08%	234.89
Canterbury	126341	0.12%	216.85
Capital and Coast	83275	0.16%	255.99
Counties Manukau	274071	0.09%	472.66
Hawkes Bay	33025	0.14%	196.71
Hutt Valley	30722	0.08%	202.34
Lakes	30590	0.04%	273.95
MidCentral	37711	0.1%	206.51
Nelson Marlborough	29900	0.11%	195.44
Northland	41511	0.08%	225.66
South Canterbury	10549	0.21%	175.36
Southern	69196	0.39%	205.25
Tairāwhiti	11898	0.03%	240.71
Taranaki	24758	0.05%	203.44
Waikato	103569	0.19%	241.38
Wairarapa	8747	0.05%	189.65
Waitematā	233212	0.13%	361.6
West Coast	3121	0.16%	97.71
Whanganui	11878	0.03%	182.58
Unknown	64836	0.08%	NA
Total	1693679	0.16%	284.26

Tests by ethnicity from 22 January 2020 to 26 February 2021
Ethnicity*	Total test	Tested positive (%)	Test rate per 1000 people
Māori	238837	0.09%	301.82
Pacific peoples	193742	0.11%	595.41
Asian	235333	0.18%	293.34
European/Other	893991	0.19%	287.43
Unknown	131776	0.19%	NA
Total	1693679	0.16%	310.56

* 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 26 February 2021
Location	Māori	Pacific peoples	Asian	European/Other
Auckland	413.2	555.68	256.48	406.58
Bay of Plenty	258.82	370.69	156.78	231.54
Canterbury	213.1	284.77	194.78	216.36
Capital and Coast	257.45	305.54	169.37	268.49
Counties Manukau	469.92	783.87	364.14	369.36
Hawke's Bay	204.76	298.17	128.53	192.4
Hutt Valley	198.68	252.69	164.57	203.83
Lakes	296.99	422.49	215.35	259.57
MidCentral	200.39	265.76	127.8	213.4
Nelson Marlborough	208.52	332.04	136.69	193.43
Northland	253.12	248.37	161.12	213.46
South Canterbury	176.27	491.85	163.59	172.16
Southern	191.66	303.96	148.12	209.48
Tairāwhiti	261.13	302.53	226.46	214.07
Taranaki	202.72	291.39	188.82	201.79
Waikato	271.61	331.67	196.38	228.29
Wairarapa	200.48	321.13	197.49	182.36
Waitematā	379.65	542.36	285.39	364.83
West Coast	91.21	156.42	124.13	96.57
Whanganui	181.44	222.52	129.26	184.43
Total	284.17	560.44	251.76	261.46

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 26 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	0.07	0.11	0.12
Hawke's Bay	0.03	0.21	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	0.1	0	0.1
South Canterbury	0.1	0	0.72	0.2
Southern	0.4	0.14	0.15	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	0.23	0.1	0.12
West Coast	0	0	0	0.19
Whanganui	0	0	0.48	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 26 February 2021
Age group	Total people tested	Tested positive (%)	Test rate per 1000 people
0 to 9	144389	0.09%	228.81
10 to 19	154734	0.13%	241.4
20 to 29	316037	0.2%	423.13
30 to 39	306798	0.18%	449.87
40 to 49	246044	0.16%	404.11
50 to 59	240123	0.16%	378.44
60 to 69	171729	0.16%	321.1
70 to 79	77980	0.14%	214.5
80+	35844	0.16%	192.01
Unknown	1	0%	NA
Total	1693679	0.16%	336.76

Tests by sex from 22 January to 26 February 2021
Sex	Total people tested	Tested positive (%)	Test rate per 1000 people
Female	855111	0.16%	336.09
Male	720289	0.19%	289.85
Unknown	118279	0.07%	NA
Total	1693679	0.16%	313.24

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.