Hopes alert level drop now possible

New Zealand’s abrupt shift to Covid-19 Alert Level 4 a week ago has worked, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says.

That could mean some parts of the country may drop down alert levels today.

The Cabinet meets today to review alert levels for everywhere except Auckland, the epicentre of the Delta variant outbreak.

Yesterday, 68 new community cases of Covid-19 were confirmed by the Ministry of Health, the highest number since April last year.

All but two of those were in Auckland and those two Wellington cases were family members of people already diagnosed with Covid-19 and in quarantine.

"Overall, lockdown is having an impact," Ms Ardern said yesterday.

"Bear in mind that while we are very pleased that we haven’t seen any spread down into the South Island on this occasion, we had 9000 people just in the 48-hour period after we called for a lockdown who travelled from Auckland back to other parts of the country."

Wastewater test results across the South Island continued to produce negative results, except in Christchurch, where a positive reading was consistent with people in quarantine shedding the virus, the Ministry of Health said.

Ms Ardern said she and her ministers would make their alert level decision based on the most up-to-date test information.

Testing rates had dropped markedly in the South this week.

On Monday, 690 swabs were taken but yesterday, up until 3pm, about 230 tests had been carried out in the SDHB region, medical officer of health Michael Butchard said.

"Most testing in our region is of symptomatic non-contacts, and thanks to WellSouth, general practices and Southern Community Laboratories, we have been able to meet demand throughout this outbreak," Dr Butchard said.

"We have increased testing capacity to ensure that everyone who needs a test can access testing, and there is the ability in the system to scale up and add capacity, including community-based testing centres or pop-up testing sites, within hours."

About 100 people regarded as close contacts of the Auckland cluster were in isolation in the SDHB region yesterday, which Dr Butchard said was a small minority of people who had been tested.

"Southern’s close contacts are at different stages of their 14-day isolation period, and are first tested on the day they identify themselves, then on day five and day 12.

"Some are now nearing the end of that time."

Director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield yesterday warned people not to expect a dramatic drop back down through the alert levels.

He said any alert level drop would only be to Level 3.

Work was under way to determine how any internal border between Auckland and the rest of the country would be managed, what travel would be permitted across the border and how it would be enforced, he said.

mike.houlahan@odt.co.nz