pandemic, giving a score of 79.6. slower vaccination rates had caused the country to drop in the ranking by 0.1 points. singapore ranked first at that time in the covid resilience ranking, with a score of 79.7. long-term effects in april 2020, the new zealand treasury projected that the country could experience an unemployment rate of 13.5% if the country remained in lockdown for four weeks, with a range of between 17.5% and 26% if the lockdown was extended. prior to the lockdown, the unemployment rate was at 4.2%. finance minister grant robertson vowed that the government would keep the unemployment rate below 10%. in the second quarter of 2020, unemployment fell 0.2 percentage points to 4 percent; however, the under-utilization rate (a measure of spare capacity in the labor market) rose to a record 12 percent, up 1.6 percentage points from the previous quarter, and working hours fell by 10 percent. national gdp contracted 1.6% in the first quarter of 2020. the country officially entered a recession in september after statistics new zealand reported a gdp contraction of 12.2% in the second quarter of 2020. the second-quarter contraction was led by a 47.4% contraction in accommodation and food and beverage services, a 38.7% contraction in transport, postal and warehousing, and a 25.8% contraction in construction. gdp rebounded 14.0% in the third quarter of 2020. on 3 november 2021, statistics new zealand reported that the unemployment rate had dropped to 3.4% despite the effects of covid-19, the lowest rate recorded since the organisation started reporting it. restriction levels alert level system between march 2020 and december 2021, new zealand operated on a four-tier alert level system, with levels 3 and 4 being forms of lockdown. in level 1 there are no domestic restrictions; in level 2 there are limits on gatherings; in level 3 only purposeful travel is allowed and there are strict limits on gatherings; and in level 4 only essential travel is allowed and gatherings are banned. traffic light system on 15 october 2021, ardern announced that the alert level system would soon be dropped in favour of a "traffic light" system, officially called the covid-19 protection framework. this three-tier system uses vaccination rates to determine the level of restrictions needed. she initially stated that the system would be adopted nationwide once all dhbs reach the milestone of 90% of the eligible population being fully vaccinated and will occur in the auckland region once its three dhbs achieve 90%. however, on 22 november, ardern stated that the 90% target would not have to be met, confirming that new zealand would enter the "traffic light system" on 3 december, replacing the previous alert level system. auckland and areas with low vaccination start on the red setting while the rest of the country starts on the orange setting. the three levels are red when the health care system is at risk of being overloaded, orange when there is pressure on the health care system, and green when hospitalisation levels are manageable. support bubble the support-bubble concept early in the pandemic, the government launched the "support bubble" concept. a bubble is defined as a group of people with whom one has close physical contact. people in a bubble do not have to practise social distancing from one another. the entire bubble counts as one household. testing requirements in early march 2020, there were concerns about covid-19 tests being given only to people with symptoms who had returned from impacted countries or people who had been in contact with a confirmed case. some people with symptoms but who did not fit these categories were not tested. in april the new zealand microbiology network recommended that transfers into or between aged care providers should not be tested, a position they maintained despite an outbreak in care facilities and calls for screening tests from e tū union and the aged care association. the case definition for qualifying for a covid-19 test is having "any acute respiratory infection with at least one of the following symptoms: cough, sore throat, shortness of breath, coryza, anosmia with or without fever." the previous case definition for testing from 14 march to 3 april was meeting at least one of the following criteria: symptoms (fever or cough or shortness of breath or sore throat) and travel history symptoms (fever or cough or shortness of breath or sore throat) and close or casual contact with a suspect, probable or confirmed case healthcare workers with pneumonia people treated in intensive care units for severe respiratory illnesses for cases not fitting this case definition doctors are encouraged to use their own judgement whether to test the patient or not. on 18 august, newshub reported that a senior quarantine official had revealed that quarantine workers had requested a regular testing "regime" multiple times but their concerns were ignored. while prime minister ardern had initially claimed that some workers were reluctant, health minister chris hipkins acknowledged that he was aware that the testing of border staff was incomplete during a briefing, stating that "they should not have been declined tests." opposition leader judith collins criticised the government's handling of the issue. on 9 july 2021, covid-19 response minister chris hipkins admitted that half of pre-departure tests were checked due to "capacity constraints." stuff had reported that more than 20 people had arrived in the country from australia without the mandated pre-departure test including one who had recently visited new south wales. on 26 august 2021, community health provider whānau waipareira began rolling out saliva testing among its 250 staff in auckland and wellington. the group's chief executive officer john tamihere also confirmed that there were plans to extend them to the public as an alternative to the more common nasal swab tests being used by health providers. in early september 2021, director general of health ashley bloomfield confirmed that the government had plans to expand saliva testing at auckland's level 4 border crossing following months of delays in rolling out the service to border and essential workers. this announcement followed yale university research scientist and saliva testing advocate anne wyllie's criticism of the saliva testing provider asia pacific healthcare group's testing methods. by 28 february 2022, the health ministry confirmed that new zealand has received 14 million rapid antigen test (rats) kits. these kits will be shipped to community testing centres, general practitioners, and pharmacies right across new zealand. associate health minister ayesha verrall also confirmed that the government had ordered 180 million rats kits for the next six months. results covid-19 testing centre in palmerston north as of 21 november 2021: there have been 4,664,080 tests completed in total, including 401,966 tests in managed isolation facilities, with a positivity rate of 0.21%. the ethnic group with the highest rate of testing was pacific, with a rate of 170.2 tests per 100 people, followed by asian with 97.1, māori with 83.1 per 100, and finally european/melaa/other with 80.4 per 100, out of 4,664,080 people in total, or the equivalent of 91% of the new zealand population of 5,126,300. starting from 16 april 2020, random voluntary community testing took place in select supermarkets around the country to provide information on whether there still existed community transmission of the virus. this testing resulted in no positive results out of 1000 people by 20 april. on 19 march 2021, newshub reported that scientists had traced two covid-19 cases who had tested positive following their stay in managed in isolation to unventilated spaces in the doorway of their hotel corridor at their managed isolation facility in christchurch. statistics cases as of 3 april 2023, new zealand has 2,274,370 cases (2,217,047 confirmed and 57,323 probable cases) of covid-19. based on the national population estimate of 4,966,000 this gives the country 422,409.6 confirmed cases per million population (430,679.4 confirmed and probable cases per million population). confirmed and probable covid-19 cases by gender as of 3 april 2023. female (54.60%) male (45.30%) unknown (0.10%) confirmed and probable covid-19 cases by ethnicity as of 3 april 2023. māori (14.73%) pacific (8.08%) asian (14.50%) melaa (1.76%) european or other (60.25%) unknown (0.67%) broken down by district health board (dhb) as of 3 april 2023: dhb cases total deaths recoveries active auckland 216,385 178 215,242 965 bay of plenty 101,507 130 100,907 470 canterbury 297,169 379 294,543 2,247 capital & coast 159,401 121 158,403 877 counties manukau 259,929 208 258,869 1,032 hawke's bay 77,734 126 76,140 280 hutt valley 77,140 77 77,642 386 lakes 45,616 77 45,318 221 midcentral 83,433 148 82,859 426 nelson marlborough 67,974 93 67,427 454 northland 70,066 91 69,665 310 south canterbury 29,420 31 29,181 208 southern 165,568 220 164,133 1,215 tairāwhiti 23,162 30 23,033 99 taranaki 56,820 104 56,341 375 unknown 1,804 3 1,766 35 waikato 179,815 264 178,664 887 wairarapa 21,950 49 21,782 119 waitematā 268,274 279 266,731 1,264 west coast 13,794 15 13,609 167 whanganui 29,746 58 29,551 137 at the border 27,295 6 27,289 0 new zealand 2,274,370 2,687 2,259,509 12,174 cases have been reported in the chatham islands and in new zealand's associated states (536 in cook islands, 1 in niue). no cases have been reported in the dependent territory of tokelau and it is the last country or dependency to have no confirmed infections from the disease. during the lockdown, overall weekly deaths declined in new zealand compared to previous years. the decline is thought to be linked to a reduction in deaths from traffic collisions, air pollution, work injuries, respiratory tract infections, and elective surgery. clusters oyster cove, the venue of the bluff wedding at stirling point rosewood rest home in christchurch, the cluster with the greatest number of deaths as of 12 april 2022, the ministry of health had identified 24 significant clusters of at least ten confirmed or probable covid-19 cases. there is currently no active significant cluster in new zealand. the following clusters have been closed. a cluster is considered closed when there have been no new cases for two incubation periods (i.e. 28 days) from the date when all cases complete isolation. august 2021 community, auckland – 10,006 auckland august cluster, closed 3 november 2020 – 179 mount roskill evangelical fellowship church "mini cluster" wedding, bluff – 98 marist college, auckland – 96 saint patrick's day gathering, redoubt bar, matamata – 77 rosewood rest home, christchurch – 56 cht st margarets rest home, auckland – 51 private function, auckland – 40 world hereford conference, queenstown – 39 international mariners, christchurch – 33 community group, auckland – 30 ruby princess cruise ship, hawke's bay – 24 george manning lifecare rest home, christchurch – 19 viking bay vessel, wellington – 18 group travel to the united states, wellington – 16 group travel to the united states, auckland – 16 lyttelton mariner – 16 atawhai assisi rest home, hamilton – 15 auckland february cluster – 15 mattina vessel, invercargill – 15 community group, christchurch – 14 wedding, wellington – 13 rest home, auckland – 13 rio de la plata vessel, tauranga – 11 all 12 of the first wave (pre-2022) of canterbury dhb deaths were cases within the rosewood rest home cluster. this cluster accounted for nearly one quarter of the country's total death toll from covid-19 prior to 2022. progression of covid-19 progression of covid-19 cases in new zealand, march 2020–november 2021: as of 30 november 2021: cases recovered hospitalised deaths active cases the march–june 2020 part of the same graph in semi-log plot form: as of 30 june 2020: cases recovered hospitalised deaths active cases new cases and fatalities new covid-19 cases (confirmed and probable) and deaths in new zealand: 2020 2021 2022 as of 24 july 2022: as of 24 july 2022, in semi-log form: new deaths per day as of 24 july 2022: