There are five new cases of Covid-19 today, according to director general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield.
Three are in the community. They are all linked to the Mt Roskill mini cluster.
That grouping has been linked to the wider Auckland cluster.
All these people were already in self-isolation.
One of the new cases in managed isolation was a child, who arrived from Dubai. Both imported cases were detected at the Rydges in Rotorua via routine testing around day 3.
The pair declined to answer media questions afterwards – as is the usual convention – instead telling reporters to wait until 1pm for any follow-up questions.
But during the hearing, Hipkins did say that Auckland would be able to move to level 1 without "complete elimination".
National's health spokesman Shane Reti asked why the South Island was still at alert level 2, and Hipkins said there was reasonably free movement, including direct flights from Auckland to Queenstown.
That meant if the South Island was at level 1 and Aucklanders could travel to a large social gathering in the South Island that would "defeat the purpose" of the different alert level settings.
"We were quite comfortable that everybody would be at alert level 2 with a few extra protections for Auckland," Hipkins said.
Higher-risk workers to face weekly Covid tests
Hipkins said at the end of the week a schedule would be released of how often border-facing workers - including airport staff and port workers - will be tested.
Higher-risk workers should be tested weekly, he said. Lower-risk workers will be tested fortnightly, and workers on the periphery will be tested monthly.
"The shipping port is the most complex of all of those operations ... we're working through that process."
Bloomfield said airport workers who were customer-facing and port workers going out to ships were higher risk.
Workers were also checked for symptoms daily, he said.
Hipkins said testing was the last line of defence and the protective measures, including PPE and physical distancing, were also important.