More Covid-19 cases are likely to emerge in the community in the coming days following the announcement of two new cases in the community last night, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says.
Auckland move to Level 3 lockdown at 6am today after two new positive cases were announced in a snap press conference last night.
The rest of the country is now at Level 2.
Yesterday's new cases include Case M, a student at MIT, and his mother, Case N.
The student's younger sibling, a student at Papatoetoe High School, tested negative three times and is asymptomatic.
Case M is believed to have been infectious for up to one week before testing positive for the virus.
He visited a number of locations while potentially infectious, including gym City Fitness in Hunter's Plaza in Papatoetoe and Burger King Highland Park. He had also attended classes for several days at MIT's Manukau campus.
Dr Bloomfield provided the update as Auckland spends its first day in lockdown.
Ardern began a conference with Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield this afternoon by issuing a reminder of the deadliness of Covid-19.
"Covid kills people. We must never lose sight of the reason we take these measures," she said. "It is to save our people's lives and to save their livelihoods."
She said that while the discovery of a "possible person-to-person link" is "good news" as we "can build a very direct picture of how our latest local cases became infected," it was not the sole reason for the lockdown.
She says a number of exposure events with potentially large groups of people for a sustained period of time also contributed to the lockdown.
"It's more than likely there will be additional cases in the community but they might not show up in test results for a few more days yet," Ardern said.
"That is why it is so important close and those casual contacts of all our Covid cases get tested in the coming days.
"Getting tested and staying home and isolated will help us to save lives and ensure we get the economy back up and running as soon as we can."
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