New Zealand is in its first day of alert level 4 lockdown after a COVID-19 case was detected in Auckland's community.
Another four people have since tested positive for COVID-19.
The Devonport man, who's infected with the Delta variant, has no known link to the border. Multiple locations of interest in Coromandel have been revealed after he visited there at the weekend.
A café in Auckland has also been named a location of interest.
Both Auckland and Coromandel will remain at alert level 4 for at least a week.
What you need to know:
- All of New Zealand entered alert level 4 lockdown at 11:59pm on Tuesday
- there are now five cases of COVID-19 in the community after an additional four were identified overnight. One is a fully vaccinated Auckland City Hospital nurse who was a close contact of the original case
- the original community case, a tradesperson infected with the Delta strain, lives in Devonport on Auckland's North Shore and is a 58-year-old male. He visited several private homes
- the Auckland Regional Public Health unit is interviewing the man for contact tracing purposes
- two contacts of the case are being treated as close contacts and they are self-isolating
- all COVID-19 vaccinations will be suspended for at least 48 hours
- it's New Zealand's first community case in 169 days
- click here for all locations of interest.
App users - click here for the latest.
8:56am - Earlier, Immunisation Advisory director Nikki Turner said the COVID-19 vaccine rollout needs to get going again as soon as possible. It's currently paused for 48 hours due to the community outbreak.
"I think it's really important it's [the pause] as short as possible," she told The AM Show.
8:52am - A full update from the Ministry of Health is below:
There are four new cases of COVID-19 to confirm this morning. Additional details and any further cases will be announced at 1pm.
One of the four new cases is a workmate of case A, the case announced yesterday. The other three are contacts of this workmate.
One of the three contacts is a fully vaccinated health professional who works at Auckland City Hospital and had been working in recent days.
Auckland City Hospital has taken some immediate actions to shut down any potential spread. Those actions include stopping unnecessary movements between wards, testing all staff and patients on the ward the health professional worked on and standing down, testing and isolating staff on the same ward.
The ministry received the results last night of the genome sequencing for case A. It is the Delta variant.
We are undertaking further analysis to see how it could be connected to cases we know about.
These developments strongly reinforce the importance of the actions taken last night in the move to level 4 and underpin the importance of everyone keeping to the lockdown conditions.
The key message from the last lockdown remains relevant: 'stay at home, save lives, be tested. This will stop any undetected spread in the community.' The ministry will be providing its assessment later today about the extent of likely spread in the community and the length of time the virus may have been circulating in the community.
Only leave your home if you need to, and please wear a mask when you do. We know of instances where people have picked up Delta simply by walking past someone with it.
Please get tested if you visited a location of interest or have cold and flu symptoms.
Eight testing sites are being stood up in Auckland and we will be able to share details of testing sites in the Coromandel later this morning and elsewhere in the country.
Please call Healthline on 0800 358 5453. And go to healthpoint.co.nz to find your local testing station, they will be updated during the day.
We know that on the first day of testing it can take time for systems to be stood up and queues can be long. Please prepare to be in a queue for some time - wear a mask, take food and water with you, take a book to read or something to watch and please be patient and kind.
Everyone is doing their best at testing stations, but the first day always tends to be busy.
8:50am - ACT leader David Seymour is outraged COVID-19 vaccinations have been paused for 48 hours.
He says it's unbelievable the Ministry of Health wasn't ready for this situation.
"We need to get the population vaccinated as fast as possible. Stopping vaccinations makes no sense."
8:44am - Earlier, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said moving to COVID-19 alert level 4 was appropriate.
"Our whole ambition here is; do it once, do it right," she told The AM Show. "Short and sharp is better than light and long and I think we all agree."
8:40am - Coromandel's Umu Cafe, one of the locations of interest, says it's shocked by the situation.
"We are lucky that this case had done the right thing and scanned in everywhere and got tested quickly after feeling symptomatic," a post on the cafe's Facebook page says.
"Thanks for all of your kind messages and calls, they do make it easier."
8:35am - Below are two of the Coromandel locations of interest.
8:32am - Here's a recap of what we know about the latest COVID-19 cases:
There are four new infections - one a fully vaccinated nurse at Auckland City Hospital - bringing community cases to five.
Genome sequencing has revealed the original positive case in Devonport has the highly infectious Delta variant and all new cases are linked to him.
Officials say one of the four new cases was a co-worker of the original infection, and the remaining three cases are household contacts.
8:30am - The College of Midwives has confirmed it isn't going ahead with planned strike action due to the COVID-19 situation.
Workers were planning to walk off the job on Thursday due to failed pay negotiations.
8:20am - Thames-Coromandel Mayor Sarah Goudie says she doesn't believe there are enough resource for community members who want to get tested for COVID-19.
Multiple locations of interest in Coromandel have been revealed after the original case visited there at the weekend.
"These are more remote areas," Goudie told Newshub. "Sure, they've got a lot of facilities - but they've only got two or three doctors.
"They haven't got a lot so what do they do? When you're in a lockdown... are you supposed to go to the doctors?"
8:10am - Need to know what you can and can't do at COVID-19 alert level 4? Click here for a lockdown reminder.
8:05am - ACT leader David Seymour is fuming the Government has halted COVID-19 vaccination for 48 hours.
"We should have been prepared for this," he said.
"Our low vaccination rates have left us a sitting duck."
8am - Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is confident the snap lockdown is the right decision.
The positive case in Devonport, a tradesperson, has the highly infectious Delta variant. He visited several private homes.
Ardern told The AM Show it was important to move hard and fast.
7:58am - The public is being urged to shop normally during COVID-19 alert level 4. Foodstuffs North Island chief executive Chris Quin says products flew off the shelves on Tuesday.
"Old habits die hard," he told The AM Show. "The targeted things yesterday were the favourites; the toilet paper, the flour, the sugar, the pasta.
"We saw an evening with about 50 percent increased demand."
7:57am - It's expected thousands of people will seek COVID-19 testing on Wednesday. Click here for a full list of community testing centres.
7:53am - Speaking to The AM Show from Auckland's CBD earlier, Newshub reporter Alice Wilkins said many people weren't wearing or carrying masks.
7:50am - There's a warning the length of the COVID-19 lockdown announced on Tuesday could be an indication of how serious the situation is.
Auckland and Coromandel will be at alert level 4 for at least seven days, and the rest of New Zealand at least three.
"That's reflective of the fact we might be looking at a bigger cluster and it might take that long to get a sense of what we're dealing with," physics and disease modeller Shaun Hendy says.
7:40am - COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says it's reassuring close contacts of the original case are being found quickly.
"That shows the system working at full speed to run this to ground," he said in a statement.
7:30am - To recap what we heard from the Prime Minister, she said the news of four additional cases of COVID-19 overnight shows the right decision was made to lock down the country.
"It just shows how quickly people are moving but it also demonstrates how important it is that we did move into level 4," she told The AM Show.
7:25am - PM Ardern says COVID-19 vaccination centres are likely to be back up and running before the originally announced 48 hour pause.
ACT leader David Seymour on Tuesday blasted the decision to pause vaccinations as "nonsensical".
"We need to get the population vaccinated as fast as possible. Stopping vaccinations makes no sense."
7:24am - Ardern says public health units are continuing to undertake contact tracing interviews and the Ministry of Health will provide more locations of interest when available.
7:23am - PM Ardern says the information about the Auckland City Hospital case came through late on Tuesday night.
"All hospitals are well versed in managing cases within facilities," she tells host Ryan Bridge.
7:21am - Jacinda Ardern is on The AM Show now. The Prime Minister says quick contact tracing helped identified the additional cases overnight.
7:15am - Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is appearing on The AM Show in about five minutes. You can watch that live here and on Three.
7:05am - Experts say identifying the source of the original COVID-19 case is now vital.
"The big question at the moment is whether we're looking at the tip of the icebergs," physics and disease modeller Shaun Hendy says. "It's not so much who this person may have gone on to infect... it's who infected him and does that mean there are a large number of other cases out there at the moment?"
He told The AM Show people infected with the Delta variant usually go on to infect between 5.5 and 6.5 others.
"That's an average - it could be a lot less than that or it could be significantly more. That's why it's important people check those locations of interest."
7:02am - Speaking to The AM Show earlier, National leader Judith Collins said vaccinating New Zealand against COVID-19 was key.
"We're not going to play silly games with this. Just as fast as we can, get people vaccinated."
7am - The Prime Minister's office confirmed to Newshub all COVID-19 cases identified overnight are linked to the original Devonport infection.
Meanwhile, a leaked memo to Auckland Hospital staff says there are fears of a hospital outbreak and there were several precautions being taken - particularly on ward 65.
6:38am - Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's office has told Newshub there were four new cases of COVID-19 identified overnight - one confirmed to be a nurse at Auckland City Hospital.
Ardern's office said the strain of the original case has been confirmed as the highly-infectious Delta variant.
The nurse was fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and was a close contact of the original Devonport case, the Prime Minister'soffice said.
Ardern will provide more details when she appears on The AM Show at 7:20am - you can watch that live here and on Three.
6:30am - A staffer at Auckland City Hospital has reportedly tested positive for COVID-19, according to an email to staff seen by Newshub.
6:25am - The Opposition National Party is supporting the Government's decision to move New Zealand to COVID-19 alert level 4.
"Decisive action to prevent further community spread is what is needed when it comes to the highly-transmissible Delta variant," leader Judith Collins says.
6:15am - Across the Tasman, there are fears COVID-19 cases in Sydney will rise significantly in the coming weeks.
New South Wales, the epicentre of Australia's latest outbreak, reported 452 community cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday - the third-biggest one-day jump.
"We envisage that case numbers in the next two or three weeks will bounce around and are likely to rise substantially," state Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters.
On Tueday evening, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern urged Kiwis to stick to our lockdown rules - saying Australia was the perfect example of how things could go wrong.
"We just need to look overseas and see what has happened there because of some of the decisions of those people covered by those lockdowns who don't follow the rules - it has extended the period of time they're there."
6:10am - COVID-19 testing will be widely available across Auckland on Wednesday. Click here for a list of testing stations.
6:05am - A reminder that anyone who was at Crumb Cafe Grey Lynn last Thursday about 10am is being told to self-isolate and get tested for COVID-19.
The same advice goes for anyone who went to Devonport Pharmacy on Monday about 2:15pm.
There are also multiple locations of interest in Coromandel after the latest COVID-19 case spent the weekend away there. Click here for all locations of interest.
6am - Experts have said the Government's approach to the community case of COVID-19 is a necessary one.
"The reality here is that we have a country where most people are not vaccinated," said Des Gorman, a professor of medcine at the University of Auckland. "We have very poor and inadequate contact tracing.
"There's no choice but to go very hard," Dr Gorman told Newshub.
5:50am - Quarantine-free travel between New Zealand and the Cook Islands has been suspended for at least three days following the community COVID case.
The Pacific nation has also moved to COVID-19 alert level 2.
All passengers who arrived there after last Wednesday will be tested for the virus. New Zealanders can still return from Rarotonga.
5:45am - A reminder the COVID-19 wage subsidy will be reinstated on Friday if New Zealand is still in lockdown. Read more about that here.
5:40am - New Zealanders are being warned against panic buying after people flocked to supermarkets even before Tuesday's alert level announcement.
Auckland City Mayor Phil Goff is urging people to stay calm.
"Don't buy the who shelf on the basis that you're going to be locked down forever," he told Newshub. "Just do the right thing and everybody will be fine."
5:30am - Officals will on Wednesday confirm which COVID-19 strain the man is infected with. We're likely to get further details from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern when she appears on The AM Show at 7:20am.
5:15am - Experts have indicated the latest community case of COVID-19 is likely the highly transmissible Delta variant.
"The majority of cases coming into the country are Delta," Auckland University professor Des Gorman says. "You should assume it's Delta until proven otherwise.
"Delta is particularly infectious - it also has a greater likelihood of affecting younger people," Dr Gorman told Newshub.
