There are two new Covid-19 cases in the community, Covid Response Minister Chris Hipkins says.
The new cases come just hours before the Prime Minister is meeting with Cabinet to decide on the next move for alert levels.
The new cases are both students. One is a close contact of the Papatoetoe High School community case who tested positive last week.
The two new cases are both siblings, one was a close contact of original community case and the other was a casual plus, who attend Papatoetoe High School.
None of the Taranaki or New Plymouth test results have came back positive.
But Hipkins said "extensive testing" is still underway.
Officials were looking into the new community cases but it's still "early information", Hipkins said.
The Ministry of Health also revealed there was one new confirmed case in managed isolation today.
So far the first results from ESR's wastewater testing for February 15 have found no evidence of any community cases of Covid-19 in wastewater sampled.
The total number of active cases in New Zealand is now 49. The total number of confirmed cases is 1984.
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.
What does this mean for alert levels
In terms of what that means for alert levels, Hipkins said these cases have a known link to the known cases.
He said the Government has been able to contain new cases in the past, when the source has been known.
But he is not preempting Cabinet's decision this afternoon on alert levels.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will front a press conference at 4.30 pm and outline Cabinet's call.
Responding to the news, Otago University epidemiologist Professor Nick Wilson suggested lockdown be extended.
He also believed mask use in Auckland should be mandatory until restrictions were lifted.
Asked about the testing of close contacts, Hipkins said of the 31 close contacts in Papatoetoe High School, 29 are negative, and one is positive, and one is outstanding.
Of the 1523 casual plus contacts identified at the school, 1159 have returned negative results.
In terms of tests of staff at the LSG Sky Chefs - where one of last week's three community cases works - officials are still awaiting a few results.
Meanwhile, officials are looking at "every potential opportunity there could have been for infection", Hipkins said.
A "big wave of testing" is designed to find out if there are any more Covid-19 positive people in the community.
Hipkins is providing an overview at a select committee of what has been done so far to contain the latest community cases, as well as what the plan is for the coming weeks.
Hipkins decided to make the new community cases known at the committee meeting, rather than waiting until the 1pm statement, because in the past the news of any new community cases has leaked out.
Director-general of Health Ashely Bloomfield is at the committee too.
National's Shane Reti, as expected, again asked Hipkins about saliva testing. He grilled the Covid Minister in the House yesterday.
These changes include: Air filtration systems in all facility lifts are being replaced, CCTV systems has been upgraded and people's movements have been further limited.
Over the last few days, National has said the Government has done the right thing by putting Auckland at alert level 3 and the rest of the country at level 2.
