Our current alert levels will be staying in place for a further 12 days, the prime minister has confirmed. Auckland will be remaining in alert level three, and New Zealand at level two, until August 26 at 11:59 p.m.

The settings will be reviewed in a week’s time, on August 21.

In addition to the alert levels staying in place, the prime minister confirmed the wage subsidy will be extended nationwide. 

“We have identified 29 cases, at this stage all linked to the Auckland cluster… and one case that is likely linked to the cluster,” she said.

More than 30,000 tests have been completed over the past 48 hours. “There are signs we have found this outbreak relatively early in its life,” Ardern said. “The earliest case we have found to date was a worker at the Americold store in Mt Wellington who became sick on the 31st of July… Contact tracing and genomic testing has not yet found a link to the border or managed isolation in quarantine facilities at this stage.

“The sequence of the virus at this stage is not the same as community cases in our first outbreak. This suggests this is not a case of the virus being dormant or a burning ember in our community. It appears to be new to New Zealand."