Police will get involved if people are breaching the rules of self-isolating, says the prime minister, as Auckland is locked down after confirmed community cases did not follow the guidelines.
Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller
Auckland has moved to alert level 3 for seven days from 6am today, and the rest of the country to level 2, after the government became concerned about the number of exposure events.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said this afternoon that regular check-ins are being done to make sure those who have been asked to stay at home, are staying at home.
Close contacts are in daily telephone contact, and if they can not be contacted, door-to-door visits may be considered. Ardern asked employers to make sure those who need to be isolating do not come to work.
"Despite our best efforts to date, recent cases have gone to work when they shouldn't have," Ardern said.
It was also confirmed today that genomic sequencing linked the latest community cases of Covid-19 in Auckland to the second family in the South Auckland cluster.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield said the genome sequencing showed cases "M" and "N" were not casually connected - this was a direct link which narrowed down the chain of transmission.
See how the day unfolded with RNZ's live blog here:
This is an official government COVID-19 announcement.
From 28 February, the Auckland region moves to Covid-19 Alert Level 3. The rest of New Zealand moves to Alert Level 2. This is for a period of seven days. Further community cases of Covid-19 have been identified in the Auckland Region. If you are in Auckland, stay home where possible, and follow Alert Level 3 guidelines. This will stop the transmission of Covid-19 and save lives. For more information on the alert levels go to covid19.govt.nz.
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Kia Kaha - Stay Strong