New Zealand

Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told Morning Report he got a report of a third positive test yesterday evening.

"We're getting all the information together and we'll update everybody at the same time at the update this afternoon," Bloomfield said.

He said the positive Covid-19 result was not of the partner of the Auckland woman who tested positive on Tuesday.

"The swab for the partner of the second case is being processed today, so the positive result we received last night is a different case."

The World Health Organisation said on its website that a second New Zealand case had been confirmed.

The Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said the citizen is a woman in her 30s who had recently returned from a trip to Italy.

The positive test result was formally reported to the ministry at about 6pm yesterday. At that point, health authorities began notifying the woman and her family and started the process of contact tracing.

The woman returned on an Air New Zealand flight NZ0283, from Singapore to Auckland on 25 February.

The Ministry of Health said the tests were mainly precautionary and not necessarily suspected cases of coronavirus.

A total of 122 tests have been done across three laboratories In Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington.

All have returned negative results.

Health officials have urged people to get winter flu vaccines this year. The Ministry of Health said the flu shot would not stop people getting Covid-19, but it would help prevent them getting seriously ill.

WWE announced today it will be bring WWE Live to Spark Arena on August 8.

It's the first time a WWE event will be in New Zealand since Christchurch hosted one in 2017.

WWE said fans can expect stars such as Seth Rollins, Becky Lynch, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe and Bobby Lashley, among many others, to feature at the event.

Tickets for the show go on sale at 10am on Tuesday, March 3 but presales begin this Thursday.

Adams best throw was 18.73 metres, with Mitton throwing 18.84 to claim the title.

Canadian Brittany Crew was third.

It was Adams third event back competing after giving birth to her second child.

Adams, who will wrap up her New Zealand season at next month's Nationals in Christchurch, says it was good to be challenged in Aotearoa.

Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, said the so-called "winter surge" was now "the new normal" in many hospitals.

"It's not unusual for our medical wards to be over 100 percent occupancy even outside the winter surge.

"So if we get flu at the same time as Covid-19, that seems like too many things."

Health workers had borne the brunt of the Covid-19 outbreak in China and their experience showed clear protocols and protective equipment were needed now, before the virus arrived, she said.

Slater, 47, holds the record for being both the youngest and oldest World Championin the men's ranks.

He won his first world title in 1992 at the age of 20 and his last was in 2011.

The Piha Pro will be the first time Slater has competed in New Zealand since 1993.

The Piha Pro is one stop on the newly-announced WSL Challenger Series which will see more than 100 surfers chasing qualifying for the elite Championship Tour in 2021.

Up to five million dollars' worth of drugs was seized in a major operation targeting the importation of methamphetamine and other drugs into New Zealand.

A New Zealand man has allegedly been operating overseas since 2016, sending drugs to associates back here via multiple countries and using a variety of ways to conceal the drugs.

He was arrested at the border in Italy on February 2.

Police have also arrested six of his alleged associates living in New Zealand after search warrants were carried out throughout the wider Auckland region last week.

They are among 193 evacuees who arrived in Auckland from the Chinese city at the epicentre of the new coronavirus outbreak, Wuhan, on Wednesday night.

The Pacific evacuees include 17 from Papua New Guinea, five Samoans, four Tongans, two Fijians, one from Kiribati and one from Federated States of Micronesia.

The group is expected to be held in isolation at Whangaparaoa, north of Auckland, for two weeks.

Otago University Professor Michael Baker said they would be contained and monitored and did not pose any threat to their home communities.

New Zealand imposed a two-week travel ban on arrivals from and through China on Monday and also warns its citizens to leave China fast.

Australia, the United States and seven other countries including Fiji, Russia, Japan and Indonesia, have also imposed entry restrictions on people from China, in an effort to limit contagion of the coronavirus from its source in Wuhan.

New Zealand's Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said preparations for the evacuation were well under way.