COVID-19 cases

The state is home to the largest Pacific Island community on the United States mainland - it is made up mostly of Polynesians but also includes a significant number of Micronesians.

As of the middle of this week there have been 1248 Pacific Islanders in Utah reported as affected by the virus, a rate 2.5 times higher than the state average.

Of those cases, 170 have come in the past week with 20 people hospitalised. Thirteen Pacific Islanders have died of COVID-19 in Utah to date.

The new cases are a woman in her 20s and a woman in her 30s, both from the same family, who arrived 2 July from Afghanistan. Both women were staying at the Sudima Hotel in Christchurch.

They each tested positive from the tests taken on day three after arrival, Hipkins said.

It had been 67 days since the last case of local transmission from an unknown source, Hipkins said.

Andrews announced the closure at a press conference this morning where he said Victoria had recorded a further 127 new coronavirus cases and a man in his 90s had died in a Victorian hospital.

He said the decision to close the border followed talks with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

The three leaders agreed closing the border would be the "smart call" at this point in time, Mr Andrews said.

"Over just the past few weeks, the daily number of cases have gone from an average of about 2,000, to more than 5,000," Mr Abbott said on Sunday.

Several southern and western states have recorded a surge in cases after lockdown restrictions were eased.

The number of reported infections in the US has now surpassed 2.5 million.

Over 125,000 Covid-19 patients are confirmed to have died nationwide - more than in any other country.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says the true number of cases is likely to be 10 times higher than the reported figure.

It comes as the state of Texas halted its reopening as infections and hospitalisations surged.

The US has recorded 2.4m confirmed infections and 122,370 deaths.

Some southern and western states have been reporting record numbers of cases in recent days.

The University of Washington predicts 180,000 US deaths by October - or 146,000 if 95% of Americans wear masks.

The biggest increase was from North and South America with over 116,000 new cases, according to a daily report here Total global cases are over 8.7 million with more than 461,000 deaths, according to the WHO.

The previous record for new cases was 181,232 on 18 June

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said the first case is a teenage girl who arrived on in New Zealand on 13 June and was travelling with her family, who have tested negative so far.

The teenager has been staying at the Novotel Auckland Airport hotel.

A New Zealander in isolation at the Auckland Airport Novotel yesterday said they were all in lockdown after being told of a new case at the hotel. However, the prime minister's office, the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Health all declined to comment ahead of today's media briefing.

The United States still had the highest number of infections, about 2 million or 25 percent of all reported cases. However, the outbreak is growing fastest in Latin America, which now accounts for 21 percent of all cases, according to a Reuters tally.

Brazil's Covid-19 cases and deaths had surged to make it second hot spot in the world.

The first case was reported in China in early January and it took until early May to reach 4 million cases. It has taken just five weeks to double to 8 million cases, according to a Reuters tally.

The order was announced by the president Thierry Santa and the French High Commissioner Laurent Prevost after two more infections were confirmed.

One case concerns a local pharmacist in her 60s who has not travelled recently, which means the virus is now considered to be in circulation in the community.

Since the announcement, a fifth Covid-19 has been confirmed.

The new regulations ban public and private meetings and entail the closure of non-essential businesses.

Supermarkets and pharmacies are allowed to remain open.