By Anna Harcourt

There are four new cases of Covid-19 in Auckland, believed to be community transmission. There is no clear link to a managed isolation facility or to recent travel.

This means from midday tomorrow Auckland will be moving to Covid alert level 3 for three days.

The rest of the country will move to alert level 2.

This means in Auckland:

  • All schools and other childcare facilities will be closed, except for the children of essential workers
  • All restaurants, bars and other hospitality businesses must close to the public. Food delivery services will remain open.
  • Work from home (except for essential workers)
  • Stay at home in your bubble except for visits to essential services like supermarkets and doctors, and for local recreation. 
  • No gatherings over ten people, including weddings, tangihanga and funerals. Public venues are closed. 
  • Physical distancing of 2m required
  • Use a mask
  • No travel into Auckland unless you live there, and no travel out of Auckland unless you need to leave to get to your home.

The alert level will remain in place until midnight Friday, when it will be re-assessed.

For the rest of New Zealand outside of Auckland, from midday Wednesday till midnight Friday:

  • Social distancing applies, and it’s recommended to wear a mask when you can’t social distance like on public transport
  • Gatherings are limited to 100 people

The area of Auckland is being considered as the geographic boundary of the super city, from Wellsford to Pukekohe. “It would not have been possible to successfully isolate one part of Auckland,” said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern

It has been 102 days since our last case of community transmission. 

The four new cases all from one family in Auckland. Close contacts from their workplaces have been tested and have gone into self isolation for 14 days, and will only be able leave self-isolation when they get a negative Covid test result.

“We have been saying for weeks that it’s inevitable that New Zealand will get another case of community transmission. This is a tricky virus,” said Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield.

“One of the most important lessons we have learnt from overseas is the need to go hard and go early and stamp out flare ups to avoid wider outbreak,” said the Prime Minister.