MIQ worker has Covid
Meanwhile, a worker at an Auckland MIQ facility has tested positive for Covid.
The facility is the Novotel Ellerslie managed isolation centre.
Residents were told in a letter that the staffer had previously visited a location of interest. They had been self-isolating since and were tested on August 20.
An investigation has now begun to work out how the staff member caught the virus and if it was transmitted to anyone else. Genome sequencing will be carried out to help with this, according to Newshub.
Close contacts among staff members and those outside the facility are now being established through an interview with the person.
Joint MIQ head Brigadier Rose King reassured guests in the letter that there were "robust processes in place to respond to these kinds of events".
There would be no changes for guests who would remain in managed isolation as before and continue to get their required Covid-19 checks.
PM: Expect cases to continue rising
Earlier today Prime Minister Ardern warned she expected the number of Covid cases to rise again today as the highly contagious Delta variant continues to spread through households and the community.
There are currently more than 400+ locations of interest, with the latest Auckland locations including supermarkets, takeaway outlets, the Auckland Art Gallery and now a new school: Green Bay High.
Other new locations revealed today include the Therese Catholic Church in Māngere East,
The Warehouse at West City Waitakere and several more bus routes.
Meanwhile, a lecturer at Victoria University in Wellington has also tested positive but students have been reassured the university was not a location of interest due to the person not working at the time they were considered contagious.
Meanwhile, the Government is still investigating how the original transmission occurred from the New South Wales returnee who was staying in MIQ at the Crowne Plaza.
Ardern told RNZ they were still working through "some theories" regarding whether or not a Covid outbreak happened at a walkway at the Crowne Plaza.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson told MPs today that the economy is well-positioned to deal with the Delta outbreak.
So far 127,935 businesses have had wage subsidy applications approved, which has seen $484.4 million already paid out to businesses.
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Crowne Plaza was no longer being used as a MIQ facility as a result.
She said what they were seeing, with the Delta variant, is that when one person is contracting the virus, the rest of the household is too.
It is hoped they would get to a point where Delta was confined only to those households.
The new cases still arising were people infected before the lockdown, which is why she was still expecting case numbers to peak before starting to drop away, she said.
"Just expect it, we are," she told Newshub.
Contact tracing alone was very difficult when there were so many locations of interest, which is why the country needed to remain in lockdown to stop the spread, she said.
Meanwhile, by September 1, anyone wanting to get the Covid vaccine will be eligible regardless of their age as the Government works towards its aim of having it available to everyone by the end of the year.
Covid Response Minister Chris Hipkins told Newstalk ZB the Government had not yet signed an agreement for boosters but they did have a 1.5 million in "principal agreement" about what they could access and when.
