Level 4 lockdown extended to 11:59pm Tuesday, after which time all of New Zealand south of Auckland will move to Level 3  

Level 4 lockdown will be extended until 11:59pm on Tuesday, after which time all of New Zealand south of Auckland will move to Level 3.

Cabinet will on Monday decide how long Auckland and Northland will remain at Level 4.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said it was "likely" Auckland could remain at Level 4 for two more weeks, from Tuesday. 

Cabinet will on September 6 review the alert level setting for the rest of New Zealand.

Ardern said Level 4 is being extended, because this will mean we have a full 14-day cycle in complete lockdown.

There are still around 300 contacts of infected people in the South Island, and there are contacts in Wellington that are yet to be tested. Tests won’t pick up a positive case if they’re done too soon after exposure.

Ardern also noted Covid-19 was detected in Christchurch via wastewater testing. While this is likely to reflect the fact there are people with Covid-19 in managed isolation, she said further tests needed to be done to be safe.

On the upside, Ardern said we may be seeing the beginning of a plateau of cases.

She also noted new cases were largely household contacts. But she said once Covid-19 gets into a household, it's spreading throughout that household. 

Latest case details

New cases in the community: 70 - all in Auckland

Total cases in the community: 347, including 333 in Auckland and 14 in Wellington

Wastewater testing: Covid-19 detected in wastewater in Auckland, Wellington, Warkworth and Christchurch. Ministry of Health says Christchurch traces could be connected to managed isolation

Links between cases: 278 epidemiologically linked, 69 unlinked

Number of locations of interest: 504 - these will be updated here every 2 hours

Number of contacts identified: 29,851

Portion of contacts tested: 76%. Ministry of Health says most of the 7164 untested contacts aren't due to have a test yet. Testing too soon after exposure can prevent positive results showing up

Vaccination rate: 26% of eligible population fully vaccinated; 48% have received one dose

Vaccinations done on Thursday: 90,757

Community cases in hospital: 19 - all stable, 1 in ICU

Testing: 37,020 tests processed on Thursday. Nearly 10% of people who live in Auckland have been tested since the start of this outbreak

Financial support for businesses

Click on links for details

• Wage Subsidy
• Covid-19 Resurgence Support Payment
• Leave Support Scheme
• Short-Term Absence Payment 
• Small Business Cashflow Loan Scheme
• Tax support

Map showing Auckland boundary

Press release from the Ministry of Health

There are 70 new cases of COVID-19 in the New Zealand community today; all are in Auckland. This brings the total number of cases in the community outbreak to 347.

The total number of community cases in Auckland is now 333 and in Wellington it is 14.  

All of the cases have or are being transferred safely to a quarantine facility, under strict infection prevention and control procedures, including the use of full PPE.

There are 278 cases that have been clearly epidemiologically-linked to another case or sub-cluster, and a further 69 for which links are yet to be fully established.

There are currently six epidemiologically-linked subclusters identified within this outbreak. The two largest clusters are the Birkdale Social Network cluster associated with Case A (45 confirmed cases), and the Mangere church cluster (146 confirmed cases). The remaining clusters have fewer than 20 people associated with them.

Of these 70 new cases, 44 are Pacific peoples, 11 are Asian, six are European, six are Māori, and the ethnicity of three is unknown.

Nineteen of the current community cases are in a stable condition in hospital; one of these cases is in a stable condition in ICU. Of those in hospital, two are in North Shore Hospital, eight are in Middlemore Hospital, and nine are in Auckland City Hospital.

There are no new cases identified at the border in recent returnees to report today.

The total number of active cases being managed in New Zealand is currently 384.

Since 1 January 2021, there have been 124 historical cases, out of a total of 1,123 cases.

Our total number of confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic is 2,941.

Amberlea Home and Hospital Care Facility (Algie’s Bay)

Amberlea has been listed as an exposure site following confirmation that a positive case in Warkworth worked in the facility’s dementia ward.

Public health officials understand the staff member worked two shifts while unknowingly infectious. They are fully vaccinated and adhered to strict Infection, Prevention and Control protocol, including wearing face coverings and other PPE.

A mobile testing unit will be operating at Amberlea today and all residents and staff are being asked to have a test.

Hospital capacity

Hospitals across the country are safely managing anyone needing acute hospital care.

Overall, health system capacity is good across the motu. Hospital occupancy is around 75%, while ICU occupancy is around 58%.

It is important that anyone who needs care, for any reason, seeks it – do not delay.

All health services are operating safely under Alert Level 4 protocols.

Testing

Testing nationwide remains crucial to us having more confidence in our assessment of the spread of COVID-19.

Our advice remains the same - if you were at a location of interest, at the specified times, or have cold and flu symptoms, please call Healthline on 0800 358 5453 for advice on testing.

By calling Healthline, people who have been at locations of interest at relevant times are logged into the contact tracing system. This means their swab can be tracked and processed faster by the laboratories.

Yesterday, 37,020 tests were processed across New Zealand.

Centres in Auckland had another busy day yesterday with almost 18,000 swabs taken across Tâmaki Makaurau, with around 7,000 at community testing centres and around 11,000 at general practice and urgent care clinics.

There are 23 community testing centres available for testing across Auckland today, including six regular community testing centres, 12 pop-up sites, and five invitation-only sites for high-risk groups and to prioritise essential health care workers.

In Wellington, almost 3,000 tests were processed yesterday. There are seven community testing centres operating across the region today, and around 32 GPs are providing testing.

All DHBs are ensuring there is good access to testing across the regions.

For up-to-date information on all testing locations, please visit the Healthpoint website.

The total number of COVID-19 tests processed by laboratories to date is 2,891,738.

The seven-day rolling average is 39,929.

Wastewater

Wastewater samples from 108 locations have now either been analysed or are currently in the laboratory being analysed. There are 78 locations in the North Island and 30 locations in South Island. These cover an estimated 3.8 million people, and over 90 percent of the New Zealand population connected to reticulated wastewater systems.

There are no unexpected detections to report. The most recent analysis shows there continues to be positive results in Warkworth, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, as previously reported.

COVID-19 was detected in a sample collected on Tuesday from Warkworth but nearby areas including Snells/Algies continue to be negative. In the Wellington region, the virus continues to only be detected in samples collected from Moa Point and likely reflects known cases shedding the virus.

A further sample collected from Christchurch collected on Wednesday was processed today and has returned a positive result. As reported yesterday, this result is consistent with virus shedding from those cases in managed isolation and quarantine facilities in Christchurch, however, further testing is underway from a range of sites in Christchurch.

Contact tracing

As of 8am today, 29,851 individual contacts have been identified and around 76% of these have had a test, most others are not yet due a test.

Locations of interest

Additional locations of interest continue to be identified.

Please remember to regularly check the Ministry’s website. Locations are being updated automatically on a two-hourly basis between 8am and 8pm. Any significant or urgent locations of interest will be published as required.

It is important to note that locations of interest are removed from the website after 18 days, this is because after this time, they no longer pose a public health risk. This is because the risk to the community is further reduced based on the adherence to Alert Level 4 requirements.

Anyone who was at a location of interest at the specified time, is asked to self-isolate and call Healthline on 0800 358 5453 for advice on testing.

COVID-19 vaccine update  

Yesterday 90,757 vaccines were administered. Of these, 65,541 were first doses and 25,216 were second doses. This is the biggest daily total to date.

More than 3.11 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to date.  

Of these, 2 million are first doses and more than 1.1 million are second doses.

More than 181,000 Māori have received their first vaccination. Of these, more than 100,000 have also had their second vaccinations.

More than 117,000 doses have been administered to Pacific peoples. Of these, more than 67,000 have also received their second doses.

NZ COVID Tracer

NZ COVID Tracer now has 3,087,114 registered users.

Poster scans have reached 330,918,492 and users have created 14,446,464 manual diary entries.

There have been 751,087 scans in the 24 hours to midday yesterday.