Scroll down for a recap of 1 NEWS' updates on day six of New Zealand's nationwide Covid-19 lockdown.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Jacinda Ardern has announced the entire country will remain at Level 4 for another four days, before being reviewed on the afternoon of Friday, August 27. Auckland will remain at Level 4 until Tuesday, August 31. Settings will be reviewed on Monday, August 30.
Today, 35 new community cases were announced, bringing the total number of cases associated with the community outbreak to 107.
More than 13,000 contacts have been identified as of 8am, the majority of which are close contacts.
Two Auckland KFCs, some McDonald's stores and a Starbucks are among the latest locations of interest. See the full list here .
Three people who used a public walkway near the Crowne Plaza MIQ facility in Auckland on August 12 are being sought. They were in the area when a person who is the potential source of the Covid-19 Delta variant outbreak was moved into isolation, and authorities are investigating further to try to learn how the virus got into the community.
LIVE UPDATES
8.45pm: There are a further 65 new locations of interest , taking the total number to 403.
Among the new locations are three Countdown supermarkets, located at Mangere Mall, Mangere East and Greenlane, a Mt Roskill gym, as well as a number of CBD bus routes.
8.21pm: Watch the lead Covid story from the 6pm bulletin.
Auckland will be at Level 4 until next Tuesday.
7.34pm: One million children remain out of schools and early learning facilities due to current lockdown restrictions.
Now, some schools and whānau are putting their children's wellbeing ahead of their education after learning from last year.
The same problems as other lockdowns are emerging for many parents.
7.29pm: The Government has temporarily paused MIQ bookings as Covid-19 continues to spread in the community. Read the story here.
"MIQ is temporarily pausing the release of rooms on the Managed Isolation Allocation System due to the current Covid-19 outbreak.
"This includes cancelled vouchers that are normally re-released. No rooms will be available to book for a few days. Updates will be posted here," the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment said on Twitter tonight.
7.03pm: Four more AUT students have tested positive for Covid-19, according to the university's student magazine, Debate.
It brings the total number of cases at the university to seven, after three cases were announced over the weekend.
6.50pm: The Level 4 lockdown extension has put massive strain on butchers desperate to open their doors.
Retail New Zealand's Greg Harford says there’s no obvious reason why supermarkets and dairies are different from smaller specialty food retailers.
There’s also confusion around what “essential” goods can be sold online.
"If it's safe to go to a supermarket if you're wearing a mask and maintaining social distancing, it's hard to see how that logic doesn't also apply to businesses like bakers and butchers."
6.44pm: The locations of interest has risen to 355 this evening.
Among the locations are McDonald's in Mount Roskill; a ground floor walkway in Sylvia Park; Pak 'n Save Clendon; Nando's in the Auckland CBD; the New Zealand School of Tourism; Rosebank School in Auckland's Avondale; and St Patricks Cathedral in the Auckland CBD.
6.28pm: The Prime Minister has given New Zealanders suffering from lockdown fatigue a message of hope after the decision was made to extend the nationwide lockdown for another four days.
6.23pm: A two-metre-high perspex wall is the only thing separating a public thoroughfare next to the Crowne Plaza and returnees in managed isolation.
"Unless the perspex barrier goes from ceiling to floor, then obviously air can circulate within that space," microbiologist Dr Siouxsie Wiles told 1 NEWS.
Officials are still looking to identify two members of the public who used the thoroughfare while the earliest identified case was in the lobby.
The focus is firmly on Auckland’s Crowne Plaza MIQ facility.
5.52pm: Nearly 2000 people have received their Covid-19 vaccine at Nelson's Trafalgar Centre today.
Walk-ins will be available at the centre tomorrow as there are "still lots of spots" open, a Nelson Marlborough Health spokesperson said in a statement.
Those eligible - including youths aged between 12 and 15 - have been encouraged to go and get their vaccine if they haven't already done so.
5.41pm: The cars of Auckland’s frontline healthcare workers are being targeted by thieves, with at least six cars reported stolen outside two hospitals in the past week. Read the full story here.
5.27pm: Dr Ashley Bloomfield has called Wellington's Covid situation "reassuring".
"In Wellington, all the newly emerging cases in Wellington are connected with and are close contacts of known cases," the Director-General of Health said at this afternoon's press conference.
"And all bar one had been in isolation for the full period of their infectivity so the picture in Wellington is reassuring at the moment but obviously, we continue to watch closely."
5.15pm: Winter Pride says all of its events prior to September 2 have been cancelled. The popular Queenstown festival was due to start over the weekend.
5.10pm: A guide on what you need to know about the lockdown extension can be found here.
4.52pm: Meanwhile, the list of locations of interest has grown to 338, and includes: Krispy Kreme Westfield Newmarket; Westfield Newmarket's level 1 to level 3 car park, including the escalator; and the Westfield Newmarket's level 3 car park to level 1, including the escalator.
Whitaker Hall, on the University of Auckland's Grafton campus, has also been added for Thursday, August 19 from 12am to 11.59pm.
4.48pm: ACT leader David Seymour said today in a statement that the Government's "inadequate testing and tracing" has "let us down".
"The Prime Minister now tells us that ‘early modelling’ predicted cases would peak on day eight," he said.
"Why did she promise a three- and seven-day lockdown, if she had that advice? It’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that short and sharp was never viable, and the Prime Minister knew it."
Jacinda Ardern’s warning comes as NZ remains in Level 4 lockdown.
4.45pm: Ardern issued a stark warning during this afternoon's press conference.
"We don't think we have reached the peak of this outbreak, or the edges of it," she said.
"Cases may continue to get worse before they get better."
4.40pm: Parliament has been temporarily suspended for one week "on the advice of the Director-General of Health", Ardern said.
All ministers have instead been asked to be made available to appear before Parliament's Select Committees, which will continue to meet virtually.
4.30pm: A student at Auckland's Green Bay High School has this afternoon tested positive for Covid-19, the school announced today on Facebook.
4.28pm: "Cabinet and the health team remain confident. Delta has changed the rules of the game but we've changed our approach too," Ardern said.
"We've hardened our alert levels, widened our contact tracing, required more mask wearing and we are testing more people. It is absolutely possible to get on top of this - we just need to keep it up and ensure that we're not in restrictions any longer than we need to be."
4.25pm: Auckland will remain at Level 4 until Tuesday, August 31. The settings will be reviewed on Monday, August 30.
4.22pm: Ardern says Auckland needs to remain at Level 4 for "at least that full 14-day cycle that we've used in the past" in order to "give the city that certainty".
4.16pm: Ardern said a number of key factors will be taken into consideration as to whether parts of the country will be ready to move down alert levels, including whether cases emerge outside Auckland; wastewater testing; and, if new cases emerge from other parts of the country, whether or not they were cases already in isolation.
4.13pm: Cabinet has made the decision for all of New Zealand to remain at Alert Level 4 for an additional four days, ending on Friday, August 27, Jacinda Ardern announced this afternoon.
The settings will be assessed on the afternoon of Friday, August 27, she said.
3.49pm: Opposition leader Judith Collins has criticised Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's decision to suspend Parliament for this week.
"I have expressed that a one week suspension of Parliament is all the National Party will support. However, the Prime Minister has indicated that she expects it will continue longer than that," she said.
Collins called the move "unfathomable", adding, "There are important questions that need to be asked as to how Delta got into New Zealand. Suspending Parliament means the Government avoids this scrutiny.
"This is unacceptable and an overreach of power. It leaves New Zealanders with no ability to demand accountability and transparency from the Government."
3.39pm: Parliament has been suspended, 1 NEWS understands.
ACT leader David Seymour sent out a statement this afternoon.
"Jacinda Ardern is happy to have a socially distanced 1pm stand up with a dozen journalists in a room but not a democratic parliament with elected representatives asking her questions.
“Ardern called me this afternoon to say she has decided that Parliament should not sit this week.
"In the previous Level 4 lockdown, all parties agreed to closing Parliament in return for an Opposition-led Epidemic Response Committee, this time there will be even less accountability.
"This decision to close Parliament is totally different from all parties agreeing, it is dictated by Jacinda Ardern alone."
2.42pm: Seven Covid-positive cases linked to the community outbreak are receiving treatment in Auckland hospitals, up from five yesterday, the Health Ministry told 1 NEWS. The eighth person in hospital is the previously reported UN worker from Fiji.
All patients linked to the outbreak - three in North Shore Hospital, three in Middlemore Hospital and one in Auckland City Hospital - are in stable condition in general wards.
The UN worker remains in a stable condition in the Intensive Care Unit at Middlemore.
2.24pm: The locations of interest has now risen to 334. Among the locations of interest are KFC Point Chevalier and Pak 'n Save Clendon Park.
2.20pm: High School and university students have opened up to Breakfast about self-isolating during lockdown after the country was suddenly plunged into Alert Level 4 restrictions on Tuesday.
From virtual birthday parties and movie marathons to studying and game nights, the students are keen to make the most of the situation.
2.11pm: Around 350 New World and Pak 'n Save staff members are self-isolating as of this morning but that number "will increase throughout the day" after Pak 'n Save's Clendon and Manukau stores were named as locations of interest, Foodstuffs head of corporate affairs, Antoinette Laird, told 1 NEWS in a statement.
1.56pm: As of 5pm yesterday, 29 people have been charged with 33 offences nationwide since Level 4 began. The arrests are "primarily the result of protest activity.
Of the 33 charges filed, 16 are for failing to comply with order, 12 are for failing to comply with direction, prohibition or restriction, and five for Health Act breaches.
Meanwhile, 85 people were issued with formal warnings In the same period.
Thirty-two of the formal warnings were for failing to comply with order, 21 for failing to comply with direction, prohibition or restriction and 32 for Health Act breaches.
Police have also received a total of 5848 online breach notifications, including 3526 over a gathering, 1788 over a business, and 534 about an individual.
1.50pm: As of 5pm yesterday, police have conducted 4483 reassurance checks at essential facilities and 6041 directed patrols for reassurance or prevention since Alert Level 4 restrictions came into effect at 11.59pm on Tuesday, Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said today in a statement.
"While compliance has generally been very good across the country, a small number of incidents continue to attract police attention," he said.
"Officers will remain out and about in our communities, particularly at high-demand locations such as supermarkets and Covid-19 testing and vaccination sites."
1.43pm: Dairy owners are calling for vaccination priority as essential workers amid a spike in Covid cases in the community, according to Dairy and Business Owners Group chairman Sunny Kaushal.
He says despite many Kiwis shopping at dairies to prevent "unnecessary trips and queues at supermarkets", they have had no contact with the Government or health authorities "aside from the usual acknowledgment despite dairies and independent service stations being key workers".
1.38pm: New Zealand's largest education union, NZEI Te Riu Roa, says teachers and schools are feeling better prepared if an extension of Level 4 restrictions is announced at 4pm today.
An anonymous survey of almost 2000 union members working in primary and intermediate schools has shown that teachers felt much better prepared for the move to Level 4 than they did the first time the nation moved into lockdown.
"We're heartened that the majority have told us they have been far better prepared for the move," NZEI Te Riu Roa President/Te Manukura, Liam Rutherford said.
1.31pm: Public health officials are continuing to investigate anyone who used the atrium thoroughfare at the Crowne Plaza while the earliest identified case was in the lobby "as there is a possibility of air flow between the two spaces".
A total of six people walked in the open walkway while the case was in the lobby. Of that number, four have been identified and three have tested negative. One person is in the process of getting tested.
Two people have not yet been identified, which police are assisting with, the Ministry said.
1.18pm: Approximately 13,230 individual contacts - the majority of which are close contacts - have been identified as of 8am today, and the number is expected to increase throughout the day as records are fully processed, the Health Ministry said.
Of these contacts, 6,773 have been contacted by public health staff and are self-isolating, and 42 per cent have had a test.
Work is underway to contact the remaining 6,457 contacts.
1.15pm: There are 35 new Covid cases to announce in the community today, the Health Ministry said today in a written statement.
Of that number, 33 are in Auckland and two are in Wellington.
The total number of community cases in Auckland is now 99, while Wellington’s has increased to eight.
It brings the total number of cases associated with the current community outbreak to 107.
12.45pm: There are now 327 locations of interest after 28 new locations were added today.
The locations include nine trips on the 007 bus from Glen Eden to Green Bay; McDonald's New Lynn; West City Mall Henderson; an Athletics Auckland running event at Cornwall Park; a trail run event at Tōtara Park; the Auckland Performing Arts Centre in Western Springs; and Charmate Restaurant in the Auckland CBD.
AUT's North and City campuses were also included on the list.
12.12pm: Lessons have not been prepared at Auckland's Lynfield College today as students and staff get their day 5 tests, a spokesperson for the school told 1 NEWS.
"Tomorrow, Tuesday, we will be resuming our learning at home routine and posting work for students," she said.
The school is receiving support from the Marist Parish "in providing food packages for the families that we would normally be dropping off packages to".
11.50am: An update from AUT, who has had three people test positive. There are 32 students isolating in accommodation and halls, waiting for their test results.
11.40am: Over a thousand Countdown supermarket worker s are self-isolating after coming in contact with Covid-19 cases. The Ministry of Health has listed 16 Countdown supermarkets as locations of interest thus far, with many staff needing to be off work.
11.10am: There are new locations of interest coming through, including a Taco Bell, two McDonald's and a central Auckland Starbucks. Get the details here .
10.30am: Staff at Weta Digital in Wellington are isolating after an external service provider who was on site on Tuesday evening was later confirmed to have coronavirus.
"We already had a much-reduced workforce on site due to existing work from home protocols and with a number of people having left for home."
10am: The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners supports the call from Te Rōpū Whakakaupapa Urutā, the National Māori Pandemic Group, that unvaccinated Māori and Pasifika must be prioritised to receive their first Covid-19 vaccination. It's now recommended people wait six weeks between doses, with with Delta in the community and Māori and Pasifika most at risk, they should get priority.
9.30am: The number of people needed to help contact trace is increasing, as the number of contacts and locations of interest grows. Auckland University public health lecturer Colin Tukuitonga is working with Auckland Regional Public Health to help find them.
9am: Association of Salaried Medical Specialists Executive Director Sarah Dalton told Breakfast of the extra lengths some medical staff are going to to keep those in their bubble safe. "We've already heard of some of our members who are doctors that have chosen not to go home. One was sleeping on a boat instead of going home to their family."
Sarah Dalton says it is disappointing that those on the frontline and their families weren't all vaccinated before the outbreak.
8.30am: Two Auckland KFCs - in Glenfield and Māngere - are among new locations of interest , as are more supermarkets and gyms.
8.00am: There's concern an education centre in Auckland's New Lynn may have been exposed to Covid-19 after a person who tested positive for the virus visited briefly. In an email sent to parents, Kumon New Lynn said a parent had entered the centre to pick up worksheets ahead of lockdown restrictions coming into place. "This is after a parent who has just been tested positive for Covid-19 attended the centre on Tuesday 17 August for a short period," instructor Chai Hoon Ko-Quek said.
7.30am: Associate Minister of Health Ayesha Verrall told Breakfast she is anticipating the number of infected people will further increase. There will be a written release at 1pm, ahead of the 4pm news conference.
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