There are nine new cases of Covid-19 today eight of which are community cases. Video / Mark Mitchell
There are nine new Covid-19 cases in New Zealand today - eight of them linked to the Auckland cluster.
The other case is in managed isolation in Auckland.
Eight of the cases are confirmed and one is probable, director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield says.
Bloomfield is revealing the last piece of the puzzle as Cabinet meets this afternoon to decide whether to shift alert levels.
He said "look for some more announcements from the Prime Minister" after being asked about masks at alert level 1 but said he couldn't comment on the advice he'd provided to Cabinet.
Hospitals in Auckland continue to manage Covid-19 patients using appropriate infection prevention and control protocols ensuring hospitals remain safe for patients, visitors and staff.
One of today's eight cases in the community had contact with a confirmed case on a bus.
Bloomfield said the exposure on the bus trip happened about 10 days ago so there may be additional cases coming through and the idea was proactively to contact people.
The important thing is this is happening at alert level 3 in Auckland so people aren't travelling as much, said Bloomfield.
Four are household contacts of confirmed cases. One has had contact with a confirmed case at a church. Two are workplace contacts – one of these is the probable case.
Details from the Ministry of Health show two of today's cases are children under the age of nine.
The Auckland cluster is now the largest in NZ's Covid-19 history, Bloomfield said.
Test results of one of the cases under investigation will be genome sequenced today as an epidemiological link couldn't be found.
Another case is a person whose brother went to Hobbiton, so is being followed up, but there is an indication it could be an old case as they arrived in the country in June.
Bloomfield said they could have been infected prior to coming to New Zealand.
The latest cases - including two young children under the age of 9. Source / MOH
Bloomfield said it was encouraging the "vast majority" of the cases could be linked to close contacts.
"What we're looking for is ideally not seeing cases popping up that we haven't already identified through our contact tracing."
Lockdown fatigue will be an issue if it goes on for some time or if we had to keep doing it, Bloomfield said.
He had seen survey work by the "All of Government" group which showed Aucklanders had high support and willingness to comply with the lockdown.
Testing latest
Bloomfield was asked about a family waiting nine days for a test result and he said that was "too long", but it would "almost certainly" be a negative result as positive results are notified immediately.
Bloomfield said everyone in isolation who'd initially been tested are now again tested at day 12.
There are 1332 confirmed Covid-19 cases in NZ. There are 123 active cases - 19 of these are in managed isolation.
There are 2300 close contacts of the cases in the community - 2249 of whom have been contacted.
One hundred and fifty-one people who are connected to the cluster have moved into managed isolation. This includes 82 people who have tested positive for Covid-19, and their household contacts.
There were 4589 tests processed yesterday. Bloomfield said the number - the lowest since before the outbreak - reflected the fact it was a Sunday.
He wasn't concerned about the fact yesterday's testing was the lowest since before the outbreak because a few weeks ago "we would have been rejoicing" about more than 4000 tests.
He expected testing rates to go up again during the week as Sundays normally have lower turnout.
Bloomfield said there were 270,000 test kits in New Zealand so there was "no shortage of supplies", including swabs.
About 100,000 tests have been processed in the last seven days and 1.77 million people have now downloaded the Covid Tracer app - about 43 per cent of population aged over 15.
There are over a million poster scans a day.
Genome sequencing - which they didn't have earlier in the year - has been critical to the response this time.
Bloomfield said New Zealand was still on an elimination path and the aim would be to stamp out any further cases at no higher than an alert level 2, which would be possible with surveillance testing.
Mask Monday has been one of the ideas floated to encourage mask use, Bloomfield said.
• Effects on the economy and the level of public compliance.
Yesterday, there were 114 active cases, with 19 in managed isolation and quarantine. Of the nine people in hospital, six people are stable and three are in ICU in Middlemore Hospital.
Three cases are still under investigation, including the Rydges maintenance worker, so the total number of cases in the community is 96.
Otago University epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker yesterday said a lockdown extension would ensure a downward trend in cases was sustained.
Baker said while the three cases still being investigated weren't necessarily a red flag as they may still be linked to other cases, it would be more reassuring to have a longer period of few cases because test results are generally an indication of the presence of Covid-19 from a week ago.
"If we saw noughts and ones in the next few days between now and Wednesday, you could consider dropping down a level, but that may be still a bit too soon."
The falling number of new community cases - nine on Friday, six on Saturday and one yesterday - was "good news", according to Auckland University Professor Shaun Hendy.
But he said his team's modelling showed that level 3 should be extended in Auckland "to be really sure".
