Health officials have revealed there are no new cases in the community after the Valentine's Day Covid outbreak pushed Auckland into alert level 3 and the rest of New Zealand into alert level 2.
The Ministry of Health revealed five new cases in managed isolation, one of which is historical, but none connected to the three cases which resulted in New Zealand moving up alert levels today.
The Prime Minister and director general of health Ashley Bloomfield will speak to media at 4pm after the Cabinet meeting.
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Close contacts
The Ministry said contact tracing had identified 10 close contacts outside the household. Six of these close contacts have returned a negative test and four results are pending.
Investigations would continue today into the three community cases, including further interviews. As a result the number of locations of interest, close and casual plus contacts may change.
The priority was for close contacts and casual plus contacts to be tested so we can understand any risk in the community.
There were a number of locations of interest for people who may be 'Casual Plus Contacts' or 'Casual Contacts' of COVID-19 cases in the community.
Genomic sequencing
The Ministry said in this afternoon's update the results of genomic sequencing for the first two Auckland February cases had confirmed the Covid-19 variant B1.1.7, first detected in the UK.
ESR was now conducting a scan of the international genome database to see if there is a match.
The Ministry said the result reinforced the decision to take swift and robust action around the latest cases to detect and stamp out the possibility of any further transmission.
An intensive source investigation around the latest cases continues, along with public health actions and alert level changes outlined yesterday, are designed to break any potential chains of transmission.
Serology testing for the three positive cases and a close household contact was also now underway.
The three cases remain in quarantine and one household contact, who has tested negative, is in isolation.
Testing being ramped up
Yesterday a mother, father and daughter tested positive for the highly infectious UK variant of Covid-19, spurring Auckland into alert level 3 lockdown and the rest of the country into alert level 2 lockdown for 72 hours.
Officials are hoping to rapidly trace and test people at the woman's workplace - where she handles laundry from international flights - to find the chain of transmission.
They are also ramping up community testing and urging people who were at locations of interest visited by the family to get tested to check for wider community transmission.
The first set of results from the mass testing will be available in the statement.
Auckland moved to level 3 for at least three days at 11.59 last night, with employees asked to work from home, students urged to stay away from school and police setting up checkpoints at eight locations at the region's border overnight.
Police officers are checking all vehicles arriving and leaving Auckland to ensure there is no non-essential travel. Alert level 2 is less restrictive. (The full list of rules are detailed below).
Ardern told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking today that the link to the British variant had led officials to think the virus might have come through airport transit or it had stemmed from an international airline crew member.
"The other possibility is that it's international airline crew... they also do the laundry of a couple of international airline crew. And so, that is also one of the possibilities."
It was still possible - but unlikely - the new cases had come from an MIQ case which hadn't been sequenced, said Ardern.
