Officials are giving another coronavirus update after the Prime Minister raised the country's alert system and putting New Zealand into lockdown.
The Ministry of Health has released details about some of the latest 36 patients who have tested positive for the coronavirus.
- 36 new virus cases; spread in community
- Rents frozen: Govt to prevent landlords raising rents
- Alert level 3: What this means for you
- Flight Centre cuts 250 jobs
- Air NZ to start laying off staff
- Stark picture in worst-case scenario
There were 36 new cases of Covid-19 confirmed today by Director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield. Details of 19 of those have now been released.
Thirteen of them are in Auckland - including a boy and a teenager - and one each in Marlborough, Tasman, Manawatu, Waikato, Canterbury and Dunedin.
There are six cases in their 20s, one in their 30s, two in their 40s, four in their 50s, three in their 60s and one case aged over 70, in the Waikato.
No details are available about the remaining 17 cases as yet.
The Prime Minister today announced that the alert level for the whole country would be raised to 3, giving people time to prepare before moving to Alert Level 4 in 48 hours.
That will see the entire country in lockdown, apart from essential services such as healthcare and supermarkets.
New Zealand has a total of 102 confirmed cases but Bloomfield said he expects to see more cases each day, with 1100-1500 lab tests carried out daily.
Over half of today's 36 new cases were directly linked to overseas travel - people who have returned to New Zealand recently.
Information about their flight numbers and times is being made available on the Ministry of Health website.
Most of the remainder are close contacts of previously confirmed cases or associated with events where there were confirmed cases, such as the Hereford cattle conference in Queenstown earlier this month.
There still remain two cases where it's not clear where the infection came from - they are in Auckland and Wairarapa. These are thought to be cases of community transmission.
