UPDATE: There is one new confirmed case of COVID-19 today.

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield says the new case is a household contact of a previous confirmed case linked to the Matatmata cluster.

He says the Waikato District Health Board is urging people who have links to the Matamata cluster, whether there on St Patrick's Day or not, to get tested.

Today's new case brings the total number of confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand to 1489.

The total confirmed number of cases is now at 1139. This is the number reported to the WHO.

A total of 1332 people have recovered. This is 89 per cent of the cases.

Ashley says yesterday, the labs processed a record 7323 test.

The total number of tests to date is now at 168,023.

Two people remain in hospital. One in Auckland City and the other in Middlemore Hospital.

None of these cases are in ICU.

There still remains 16 significant clusters. Three of which have now been closed by the Ministry of Health.

EARLIER:

Today is the day New Zealanders will find out what life will look like under Alert Level 2.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will be addressing the country live at 1pm, along with Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield.

Ashley will be providing the latest COVID-19 numbers.

SunLive will continue to provide updates throughout the afternoon on both topics.

What we know so far

On Wednesday, Ashley reported one additional death related to COVID-19.

He says the woman was linked to the Rosewood Resthome Cluster, but was not one of the residents who had been transferred to Burwood Hospital.

"She was a woman in her 60s who had underlying medical conditions and was considered a probable case.

"Our thoughts go out to her family and friends."

There are two new cases of COVID-19 in New Zealand today. One confirmed case and one probable case.

The confirmed case is a student linked to the Marist College cluster and has been in lockdown since March.

"The student has what we call a 'weak positive test' and is almost certainly late in the course of the infection."

He says this meant it's unlikely they are infectious, but the student will remain in isolation and be re-tested in a week's time.

The probable case is linked to the St Margaret's cluster.

There are two people in hospital, one in Auckland City and one in Middlemore.

"Neither of these cases are in ICU," says Ashley.

There were 4772 test carried out in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number to 160700.

The total number of confirmed cases is now 1138, and this is the number that will be reported to the WHO.

The total number of probable and confirmed cases is 1488.

Around 88 per cent of the COVID-19 cases in New Zealand are now considered as being recovered.

Ashley says the continuing low numbers are encouraging.

"But we are by no means out of the woods, we need everyone to stick to the plan and continue to follow the rules around alert level three.

"And not doing so does risk undoing all the good work we have achieved so far, we have seen how quickly this virus can spread, so do not give it an inch."