The ministry revealed four new cases in a statement before Health Minister Chris Hipkins gave a press conference.
The ministry said two community cases are linked to the Auckland August cluster, and specifically to the sub-cluster, which was sparked when an infectious member of the Mt Roskill Evangelical Fellowship Church visited the home of a bereaved family.
Two cases are imported.
The ministry indicated the man who visited the bereaved family should have been isolating as a close contact, saying the spread from his visit to the bereaved family highlighted the importance of following health advice.
"One factor that it’s important to underline here is that this sub-cluster has come about as a result of a contact of a case having close contact with other people.
"As far as we can tell they were unaware they had been infected and were incubating and spreading the virus at the time.
"This underscores the importance of close contacts following the public health advice they’re given which includes strict self-isolation even if they don’t have symptoms, and even if they have returned a negative test."
Penalty for illegal meetings?
Asked about penalties for those who had broken lockdown rules, Hipkins said it was more important to support people's cooperation rather than taking a punitive approach.
"Come forward if you've got concerns, get a test if you're worried. There won't be a punitive approach here."
He hasn't looked at whether there were criminal sanctions for people spreading misinformation, but it could be looked at if it became more of a problem.
"We can give the misinformation nowhere to go, just as we give the virus nowhere to go. That's the best safeguard."
He said it was important to identify close contacts, and the St Dominic's student was a contact of a close contact who had been previously undisclosed.
Whether that was deliberate was still unknown, he said.
Asked about lockdowns in suburbs, which National's health spokesman Shane Reti has raised, Hipkins said they didn't work in Melbourne and they wouldn't have worked with this outbreak.
"We would potentially be in a Melbourne-like situation by now."
He said a suburb lockdown for this outbreak would have seen the virus explode in a similar way to the way it did in Melbourne."
Imported cases
Of the imported cases, one is a man in his 30s and the other is a woman in her 50s.
Both cases arrived in New Zealand on a flight from India on 27 August. They were in managed isolation in Christchurch and tested positive to day 12 testing.
Both cases are now in quarantine.
Church leaders encourage testing
The ministry said church leaders were encouraging members to get re-tested by Friday and to comply with health advice such as self-isolation.
Almost two-thirds of the 332 people in the congregation had been retested by 8am today.
There is an additional testing station at the Mt Roskill War Memorial, which is open from 9am to 4pm.
There are also pop-up testing stations that can move to new locations to respond to community need.
The case at an Auckland high school
The ministry said the deep-clean of St Dominic's Catholic School, where a student who is part of the sub-cluster tested positive, has been completed.
Many members of the school community have been tested since they were informed of the case on Tuesday afternoon.
Testers have been supplied with a surveillance code for testing of asymptomatic members of the school community so it can keep track of the numbers.
As at 11am today, labs had registered 561 tests against this code.
Staff and students have been provided with access to two dedicated testing centres so they don't have long waits.
The vast majority of students at St Dominic's are casual contacts, and being tested as a precaution. If these students and staff are well and have no symptoms, they do not need to self-isolate while waiting for test results.
Auckland cluster
There are now 72 people linked to the wider Auckland cluster at the Jet Park Hotel in quarantine, which includes 56 people who have tested positive and their household contacts.
There are now 3372 close contacts identified with the current outbreak, of which 3354 have been contacted.
There are three people in hospital, including two in ICU at North Shore and Waikato hospitals.
With today's four new cases and nine additional recovered cases, our total number of active cases is 120. Of those, 39 are imported cases in MIQ facilities, and 81 are community cases.
There are now 72 people linked to the wider Auckland cluster at the Jet Park Hotel in quarantine, which includes 56 people who have tested positive and their household contacts.
There are now 3372 close contacts identified with the current outbreak, of which 3354 have been contacted.
There are three people in hospital, including two in ICU at North Shore and Waikato hospitals.
With today's four new cases and nine additional recovered cases, our total number of active cases is 120. Of those, 39 are imported cases in MIQ facilities, and 81 are community cases.
Yesterday's cases
Yesterday there were six new cases, all connected to the Mt Roskill Evangelical Fellowship Church.
They were all cases that are part of a sub-cluster of the church group, which was sparked when a Covid-infected church member went to the home of a bereaved family on August 27, when Auckland was in alert level 3.
It is unclear if the visit was against the level 3 rules.
Police had already cautioned church members over an illegal prayer meeting, which was against level 3 rules, on August 15.
Yesterday director general of health Ashley Bloomfield asked the church members to all be re-tested for Covid-19, along with people who associate with them.
He conceded the new cases in the sub-cluster could push out the outbreak's long tail by weeks, but that would depend on how quickly close contacts could be traced and isolated.
This morning the ministry released a number of locations of interest, including Crave Cafe in Morningside which was visited by a Covid-positive person between 9.30am until 3pm on September 4.
Other locations of interest include Kreem Bake Cook, a cafe in Henderson, and Bricklane Restaurant and Bar in New Lynn.
The ministry said anyone who visited these places during the relevant timeframes were a casual contact with low risk of exposure.
They are not required to self-isolate unless they start to feel unwell or develop Covid-19 symptoms.
If they get sick, they are advised to call Healthline and stay home.
