Police Minister Poto Williams and Police Commissioner Andrew Coster are briefing MPs this morning on the police enforcement of the Covid-19 Delta outbreak.
A Hamilton woman is to appear in court charged over breaching the country's level 4 lockdown.
Kiwis have been required to stay at home for more than a week after an outbreak of the Covid-19 Delta strain erupted in Auckland.
The city was now dealing with an ongoing spike in cases which now totals 277 after 68 new cases were announced by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday.
More cases and the length of the lockdown will be announced at 3pm today, but in the meantime, New Zealanders are required to stay at home unless its for essential travel.
The Hamilton East 20-year-old, who is just a couple of days short of spending her birthday in a courtroom, was yesterday arrested outside a Bader St house.
As well as breaching lockdown she was allegedly found with methamphetamine and a P pipe.
She has been charged for that as well as failing to assist police in a search and is currently one nearly 20 people across the country to be charged with intentionally failing to comply with the L4 lockdown by not remaining at home and was instead found outside a Bader St house with an "unknown male".
The latter charge has a maximum penalty of six months prison or a $4000 fine.
Police revealed yesterday that since alert level 4 came into place, 69 people had been charged with a total of 75 offences nationwide as at 5pm Wednesday.
These arrests are primarily the result of protest activity in the first few days of alert level 4 and other intentional behaviour in breach of the restrictions.
Of the 75 charges filed, 47 were forfFailing to comply with order (COVID-19), 16 for failure to comply with direction/prohibition/restriction, 10 for Health Act breaches, and two for assaults/threatens/hinders/obstructs enforcement officer.
In front of Cabinet yesterday, Police Commissioner Andrew Coster that police had issued 686 lockdown infringement notices, while they'd received 5000 calls to the police hotline reporting breaches.
The breaches had been primarily the result of protest activity and other intentional breaches.
Hamilton police at a Covid compliance checkpoint on Hukanui Rd on Wednesday. Photo / Supplied
108 formal warnings had been issued and 507 infringement notices had been issued.
Yesterday police started roadblocks between Auckland and Northland to stop people travelling for non-essential reasons, while in the Waikato, a rolling checkpoint had been set up by police in and around the Coromandel.
