The Prime Minister is flying back to Wellington after three Covid-19 community cases were confirmed today, with the Health Minister saying there was "a number of gaps in our knowledge" around the cases.
New Zealand's Alert Levels have currently not changed, despite the new cases.
Today's new cases include a mother, father and daughter from the same household in Papatoetoe, South Auckland. The mother is currently employed at LSG Sky Chefs, which provides food and laundry services for airlines and is part of the Covid-19 testing cycle. However, Hipkins confirmed her positive result came from outside regular testing.
Jacinda Ardern was scheduled to attend the Big Gay Out in Auckland, but instead is flying back to Wellington to be briefed on the situation.
"In these cases we do act with abundance of caution while the early information is being collected," Hipkins told media.
"In that vein, the Prime Minister is returning to Wellington where she'll be briefed and actively involved in the decision-making process."
Hipkins expected more information to be provided later today.
When asked his level of concern around today's cases, Hipkins said there was a "number of gaps in our knowledge around these cases".
"One of the things I will be looking for is more information around the likely source of the case, whether or not we can identify a likely theory for how any of these three cases contracted Covid-19 in the first place.
"That's still a piece of the puzzle missing at this point."
Before other decisions were made, Hipkins said they needed to look for evidence around whether there was the start of any potential transmission chain of Covid-19.
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