Director of public health Caroline McElnay has revealed five new community cases and seven new imported cases.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson is also fronting media for a Covid-19 update this afternoon and will face questions on the new "mini cluster" at a Mt Roskill church.
McElnay said the five community cases are all linked to the Auckland cluster, four of which are from one household and linked to the Mt Roskill Evangelical Fellowship "mini-cluster". There were now 12 cases connected to the church.
The other case was linked to another known Auckland case and not part of the mini-cluster.
The seven imported cases all arrived on the same Air India flight from Delhi on August 23 and returned positive day three Covid-19 test results.
They were heading to the Jet Park quarantine facility in Auckand.
The people travelled from a country with high rates of Covid-19, but Robertson said it was unclear if they all travelled from India.
"They are all people entitled to be in New Zealand."
McElnay said so far, there are 2475 contacts identified to the Auckland cluster - 2433 have been contacted.
There 11 people in hospital, she said. Three of them are in ICU.
The total number of active cases is 130, she said.
There were 11,010 tests yesterday. That brings the total testing number to 730,330.
Auckland's job is 'not quite done'
Robertson said there were two and a half days until Auckland moves to level 2.
He thanked Auckland - now home to the biggest Covid-19 cluster in New Zealand so far.
"We are nearly there, but the job is not quite done."
He called on Aucklanders to get a test if they have symptoms.
"We need you to get tested today, or this weekend."
He said there are a number of pop-up testing stations available this weekend.
He reminded Aucklanders that restrictions remain in place until midnight on Sunday.
But he warned there will continue to be some cases "for some time".
That's why gathering sizes have been limited for the time being.
This includes churches.
He called on people to be careful, after Sunday, if they are leaving Auckland.
"The last thing we want from re-opening Auckland, is to spread [Covid] around the country."
He said it was "safe to send your children to school" as of Monday.
He said level 2 will see a lot more economic activity.
Wage subsidy
On the wage subsidy, he said he was aware of the "trying circumstances" that some businesses are facing.
He said the Government is committed to supporting jobs through there "trying times".
He said there are "positive signs" regarding how the scheme is working.
He said job seeker applications have only risen by 3000 or so in recent weeks.
He said every dollar of support given out, is a dollar of borrowing from the Government.
It's important to keep debt under control, he said.
If money from the $14b fund is not needed, he said it will not be borrowed.
GCSB helping NZX after cyber attack
On NZX, he said it was important that the Government works with them during this cyber attack.
He said the Government is aware of the impact this is having on the stock market.
He confirmed the GCSB is helping.
But he said he was not able to go into more details, as NZX is a private company.
But he has directed the GCSB to help NZX with "this situation".
Mini-cluster genetically linked to wider Auckland outbreak
Yesterday, there were eight Covid-19 cases linked to the "mini-cluster" - as director general of health Ashley Bloomfield called it this week - at the Mt Roskill Evangelical Fellowship.
The "mini cluster" is genomically linked to the B111 Covid-19 outbreak in Auckland – meaning it's from the same Covid-19 family.
Officials are calling for anyone who was at services at the Mt Roskill Evangelical Fellowship Church on August 8, 9 and 11, as well as anyone who was at an August 7 wedding, to get tested "as soon as possible".
