There are 13 new Covid-19 cases in the Auckland community today and one in managed isolation, the city's testing record has been smashed and hundreds of motorists were turned back at checkpoints.
Photo: RNZ / AFP
The country will find out at 5.30pm tomorrow about any further alert level changes. Auckland is currently in alert level 3 while the rest of the country is at level 2.
Cabinet is meeting at 3pm to consider the latest Covid-19 test results and advice from the director general of health.
Following that meeting the prime minister will address the media at Parliament.
Any decision may hinge on finding 'patient zero' - the source of the latest outbreak.
Disease modeller Shaun Hendy believes the cluster goes back to the cold store, Americold, where one of the earliest positive cases is employed.
New cases, more tests
The 13 new cases confirmed in the Auckland community today bring the total number in the new cluster to 17.
There are now a total of 36 active cases in New Zealand.
Nearly 8000 people were tested for Covid in Auckland yesterday, easily beating the previous record.
Traffic snaked for hundreds of metres outside some centres, where people who were turned away yesterday, returned for another long wait today.
Nine pop-up testing clinics have opened in the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 15 - as well as the testing available at many GP clinics.The central city Eden Terrace clinic is being moved to Eden Park to avoid the traffic hold ups that it has caused.
Police at the Auckland region's new border checkpoints stopped almost 20,000 cars, and turned back more than 300, including people trying to get to holiday homes.
Look back on the day's live coverage here: