By the end of Wednesday, Aucklanders may be freed from the alert level 3 lockdown or required to continue life under the strict measures as officials grapple with the COVID-19 situation.
Cabinet will meet in the afternoon to consider the latest data, including the results of outstanding close contact tests. These will signal if there has been any onward transmission from the three infected cases, while wider community testing should reveal any undetected parallel transmission.
An announcement will then be made at 4:30pm on whether lockdown will be lifted in Auckland. If that does happen, the region could still be placed under alert level 2 rather than jumping back to the liberties Aucklanders had before Sunday when alert level 1 was in play.
What you need to know:
- Three community cases of COVID-19 were detected in south Auckland over the weekend, leading the Government to impose an alert level 3 lockdown on Auckland and put the rest of the country under alert level 2
- The infected family - a mother, father and daughter - have the UK variant of the illness. The cases do not link directly to any other positive cases found in New Zealand to date
- Two new community cases were announced at about midday on Wednesday. One is a Papatoetoe High School classmate of an original case and the second is that classmate's sibling
- A total of 31 close contacts and 1523 casual plus contacts have been identified at Papatoetoe High School. Of those, 29 close contacts have tested negative, one person has tested positive, and one result is outstanding. Of the casual plus contacts, 1159 have returned negative results, there is one positive, and 363 are outstanding
- Wastewater testing for Monday has found no evidence of community cases of COVID-19 in the wastewater sampled
- A decision on alert levels will be announced at 4:30pm on Wednesday
- An updated list of locations visited by the three cases can be viewed here. There are instructions for individuals who were also at the same locations as the cases at the same time
- An up-to-date list of testing locations is available here.
The Prime Minister and Dr Ashley Bloomfield will announce a decision on alert levels at 4:30pm. You can watch that in the video above. App users - click here to watch.
Follow Newshub's live updates below:
4:52pm - Ardern says she believes this is a small and contained outbreak, however, they are being cautious since this is a new variant which may be more transmissible.
She thanks the first cases for their actions to get tested.
4:50pm - Ardern says if people are sick, they should stay home.
"There is every chance we will find further cases," she says.
She asks Aucklanders to keep to the rules so they can have the assurance they can move down alert levels later.
4:49pm - Ardern says this move is "good news". She says apart from the cases announced on Wednesday, all tests have come back negative.
She adds it's a small chain of transmission, which is manageable.
4:47pm - Auckland will move to alert level 2 at midnight tonight. The rest of New Zealand will move to level 1 at the same time.
There are specific restrictions for those connected to Papatoetoe High School and they are asked to stay home. All other schools will be open in Auckland.
4:46pm - Ardern says they know everyone would've been gutted at new cases announced on Wednesday.
She says it's not something anyone wanted or planned for.
4:45pm - Dr Bloomfield says the original case's last exposure date at Papatoetoe High School was February 10 and he is confident that contract tracing has been robust. However, the school will stay closed until Monday.
All students will be required to return a negative COVID-19 test result before returning. Testing will be available at the school on Saturday and Sunday.
From original cases: 31 close contacts and 1523 casual plus contacts from the school have returned negative results.
4:40pm - Dr Bloomfield reiterates there are two new cases in the community - these were announced earlier today.
He says both new cases are linked to existing weekend cases, which, under this scenario, everyone should be encouraged since all five cases have clear links.
A further member of the household of Cases D and E has tested positive. This person was in isolation during their infectious period.
He says it is reassuring that they are all linked and were identified through testing.
4:25pm - Jacinda Ardern and Dr Ashley Bloomfield will announce their decision on alert levels at 4:30pm. You can watch that in the video player above. App users - click here to watch.
4:15pm - ACT leader David Seymour is calling for scanning or manually signing in to any premises with the COVID Tracer app to be made compulsory.
"It was a huge reveal in Parliament today when the Prime Minister admitted that none of the three community cases that led to the latest Auckland lockdown had been using the official NZ COVID Tracer app at all," he says.
"Doing that [making it compulsory] could have made this afternoon's decision about whether the lockdown should be extended so much easier, or even unnecessary, because contact tracing could have been vastly improved."
He says unlike last month's Northland case, who consistently used the app, "since Sunday night the Ministry [of Health] has reported nothing similar on the south Auckland cases".
"I warned on 12 January that if we didn't get app use up by making it a requirement of entering premises 'the outcome will inevitably be another extremely costly lockdown'," Seymour says.
"I'm glad and encouraged that the Government is actively discussing acting on ACT's common sense policy, and I don't buy their claim that enforcement will be a big issue."
4:05pm - Newshub reporter Kethaki Masilamani, who is at Papatoetoe High School, says the principal is "awfully disappointed" at the two new cases and was hoping for a hat trick of three days in a row of no community cases.
Masilamani says the principal understands the two new cases were isolating, so is confident they've had little contact outside of their bubble.
3:55pm - Newshub's COVID-19 special will start at 4pm. You can watch that in the video stream above or by clicking the banner at the top of the page.
App users - click here to watch.
3:40pm - In an opinion piece, Newshub's political editor, Tova O'Brien, says her money is on a shift down alert levels this afternoon.
"Here's why:
"COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins has drawn equivalence between these two new cases at Papatoetoe High School and the Northland case which didn't require a lock down.
"The main reason we didn't shift up alert levels after the Northland case is because we knew where it came from. It wasn't a surprise case in the community that could have been silently spreading for goodness knows how long."
3:30pm - Leading epidemiologist Michael Baker says there is a possibility that Wednesday's new community cases could be part of a larger outbreak in the community.
Speaking to Newshub, he said it will be "good news" if the Papatoetoe High School student who tested positive on Wednesday - a close contact of the initial community case announced on Sunday - was infected via their fellow student.
However, the alternative could be that a chain of transmission has gone undetected in the community, he said.
"Everything depends on the extra details about these cases," he said.
"Of course all of this will feed into decisions about the continuation of alert levels. It could have very little implication, or it could be very important - it just depends on the extra information."
3:20pm - ACT leader David Seymour is continuing to push Jacinda Ardern on making the use of saliva tests more widespread.
"Some very clear questions have been asked in recent days about why New Zealand, unlike Australia, Singapore, Taiwan and numerous other jurisdictions still isn't using widespread, daily saliva PCR testing as an adjunct to nasal PCR testing," he said in a statement.
"But the Prime Minister can't seem to give credible answers to those questions."
Seymour says Ardern has been relying on advice from health officials that the technology needs to be verified for saliva tests, "despite it having been verified the world over".
"And remember, the Simpson-Roche report her Government commissioned, which she received in September, said saliva PCR testing should be implemented 'as soon as possible'," he says.
"The Prime Minister also seemed to become confused [during Question Time on Wednesday], suggesting the Opposition was asking for saliva PCR testing to be used instead of nasal PCR testing. But we never have."
Seymour says it's clear to anyone with an interest in COVID-19 testing that saliva PCR testing is suggested as an additional, more frequent form of testing - not a replacement for nasal PCR testing.
"In fact, the Simpson-Roche report made that very point - they formed the view last year that officials were blaming the slow rollout on an assumption that saliva PCR testing might at some point replace nasal PCR testing," he says.
"They said very clearly that one need not replace the other, saying the two 'could well be complementary'."
2:55pm - The Australian state of Victoria will be finishing lockdown at midnight on Wednesday (local time) after recording no new cases of COVID-19.
The state went into a snap five-day lockdown on Friday after Melbourne Airport's Holiday Inn coronavirus cluster grew to 13 cases on Thursday, with hundreds more people identified as close contacts.
"Because it is so infectious, and moving so fast, we need a circuit breaker," State Premier Daniel Andrews said at the time.
Residents of the state, more than a quarter of Australia's 25 million population, were ordered to stay home except for work, buying groceries, outdoor exercise and caregiving.
Authorities a day earlier said the state was "well placed" to come out of the lockdown on Wednesday if there was no spike in community cases.
2:40pm - In response to a question from Chris Bishop about how COVID-19 spread in the Pullman Hotel, Chris Hipkins says reports into this will be released this week.
He says he's been told by health officials that the precise point of infection may not be found, but adds it could be due to the nature of the variant, ventilation, and non-essential movement within the facility.
2:30pm - The next COVID-19-related questions is from Chris Bishop to Chris Hipkins: "Does he stand by his statement, 'And you see that in the fact that our system is always changing. We are always doing new things'; if so, when, if ever, will the Government introduce mandatory daily saliva testing for border workers?"
Hipkins says he does stand by this statement, but says more work needs to be done on the sensitivity in test results between saliva and nasal tests.
On just 140 saliva tests being done so far, he says the roll out of saliva testing began in January, but this was paused while people were diverted to investigate the cases found in Northland.
2:10pm - It's currently Question Time in Parliament. Opposition leader Judith Collins has asked Jacinda Ardern about the use of saliva tests and if they'll become mandatory.
The Prime Minister responds by saying there's no defence from her about saliva tests, adding they're not nearly as invasive as nasal PCR tests.
"We're in favour of it. We view saliva testing favourably," Ardern says. She adds she looks forward to greater use of saliva tests across the board.
She says testing is one of the things they have to do regularly, and they've looking at adding different testing mechanisms.
Currently, saliva tests aren't mandatory for border workers, only optional.
1:55pm - Jacinda Ardern says one of the things they take into account is whether or not the cases they've identified are already close contacts. Those are the things Cabinet will consider when making a decision on alert levels.
A reminder that this decision on alert levels will be announced at 4:30pm.
1:45pm - Papatoetoe High School will be closed until at least Friday, a Facebook update from the school says.
The testing centre at the school remains open. The school asks if you receive a message that suggests you need a second test, "please come down to be tested".
"We are open until 5:00pm today and will be open for the rest of the week."
People are asked to bring a form of ID, such as a drivers license, school ID card, or passport, to ensure names are matched up correctly.
1:35pm - The new case in managed isolation arrived from Kazakhstan on February 14 and tested positive on their day one test.
"The total number of active cases in New Zealand is now 49. Our total number of confirmed cases is 1,984," the Ministry of Health says.
"The total number of tests processed by laboratories to date is 1,613,211.
"On Tuesday our laboratories processed 17,439 tests.
'The seven-day rolling average up to yesterday is 6,466 tests processed."
Since January 1, there have now been 29 historical cases, out of a total of 174 cases.
NZ COVID Tracer now has 2,636,000 registered users.
Poster scans have reached 182,799,643. More than 1,024,397 poster scans have been recorded since midday on Tuesday.
Users have created 7,486,108 manual diary entries.
1:30pm - The ministry says there is "room and resource to test everyone", but has several requests to keep testing running "quickly and easily".
- If you were not at a location of interest at the stated times and you have no symptoms you do not need to be tested.
- If you were at the locations of interest at the times stated, you need to get a test.
- If you have symptoms but have not been to a location of interest stay home and call Healthline for advice.
- Be patient, take care, they do want to talk to you.
- If you do have to wait for a test, our frontliners ask for your patience and empathy, please be kind
"All community testing centres in the metro Auckland experienced a big increase in demand for testing yesterday. As at 11am Wednesday (February 17), labs in metro Auckland had registered 7,010 tests from Tuesday (February 16) – this number will increase throughout Wednesday. Swabs are registered up to 48 hours after the test is carried out.
"Labs across the Auckland region are coping well and the current turnaround time for test results is 48 hours and extra staff have been rostered on to help manage any surge in the number of tests needing to be processed."
1:25pm - Wastewater testing for Monday has found no evidence of community cases of COVID-19 in the wastewater sampled:
- Auckland Western and Eastern Interceptors, North Shore (Rosedale), Rotorua, and Christchurch all returned negative.
- The South Western Interceptor (Auckland) returned a positive result, which is a consequence of COVID-19 cases at the Auckland quarantine facility. The levels detected are consistent with those seen over the last month.
- Samples collected from the Papatoetoe catchment area arrived this morning and are being processed today. Hamilton samples are also being processed today.
- Further results will follow as they are received and tested throughout the week.
Contact tracing has identified 128 close contacts associated with the three original cases. Of these, 76 have tested negative, there is one positive, and 49 results are pending.
Case investigation into the two new cases is underway.
As at 11:30am on Wednesday morning, a total of 31 close contacts and 1523 casual plus contacts have been identified at Papatoetoe High School. Of those, 29 close contacts have tested negative, one person has tested positive and one result is outstanding.
Of the casual plus contacts, 1159 have returned negative results, there is one positive, and 363 are outstanding.
The close contact who tested positive (Case D) is the classmate of one of the original cases. The casual plus contact who tested positive is the sibling of Case D.
Testing
Community testing centres in Auckland remained "steady" on Wednesday, according to the Ministry of Health. There were no significant wait times reported at any of the ten community testing centres or pop-ups.
"As at 11am, the wait time at the Otara CTC was less than 20 minutes and less than 10 minutes at the Wiri CTC. There are no reports of queues at any of Auckland’s other CTCs.
"We want to thank our Auckland communities for getting tested – since Sunday, more than 20,000 tests have been performed in the community.
"Today there are 10 community testing sites available testing in Auckland, including the pop-up testing centre at Kohuora Park in Papatoetoe.
"We are monitoring the situation continuously and will continue to increase capacity and hours at the current CTCs and open new CTCs as needed.
"We would like to thank the public for their patience while teams work tirelessly to test everyone who needs a test.
"There is room and resource to test everyone – but we need your help to get testing running quickly and easily."
1:20pm: The Ministry of Health reports:
"There are two new cases of COVID-19 in the community, and one new case in managed isolation.
"Both of today’s community cases are linked to the previous Auckland February cases.
"Both cases are students at Papatoetoe High School. Case D is a classmate, and had already been identified as a close contact, of Case A. Case E is Case D’s sibling.
"Case interviews are continuing and we will have further information, including any locations of interest, at a media conference at 4:30pm."
12:55pm - We are now waiting on the Ministry of Health's update. When that comes through, we will let you know.
12:40pm - Clinical molecular medicine and pathology expert Dr Mark Thomas tells Newshub it is too early to speculate about the impact of the new cases on the alert level decision.
"It's a small number of cases closely related to the child of the previously diagnosed family. It may require further testing of contacts of that original child and of the new diagnosed two children."
12:30pm - Dr Bloomfield is providing more detail.
Both students go to Papatoetoe High School. The close contact is a classmate of one of the three cases from the weekend. They are self-isolating with their family. The second new case, a sibling of the close contact, is categorised as a casual-plus contact because they attend the school.
It's believed that the original case passed the virus on to the classmate who then passed it on to her brother.
The select committee session is now over.
12:25pm - In case you missed it, there will be a written statement from the Ministry of Health at 1pm, but not a press conference. That update will give clarity about the new cases and data about contacts and tests.
Cabinet meets at 3pm and then an alert level decision will be announced at about 4:30pm.
12:15pm - Hipkins says there still a number of test results pending. At Papatoetoe High School, there were 31 close contacts. One of these have tested positive, there have been 28 negative cases and two are pending.
Both new cases are from the same household. One was the school close contact and the other was a casual-plus contact, a sibling of that close contact.
12:05pm - COVID Response Minister Chris Hipkins is now speaking to the Health Select Committeee. Dr Ashley Bloomfield is also present.
Hipkins says there are two new cases of COVID-19. Both are students. One is a close contact of one of the three cases from the weekend and the other is a sibling of that new case.
The minister is now discussing the Pullman Hotel and the cases from January believed to have orignated there.
