News of resurgence left PM 'gutted'

As New Zealand tackles a resurgence of coronavirus, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has revealed how she felt the moment she found out about the first new cases.

Two weeks ago, after more than 100 days without a single case of community transmission, New Zealand recorded new cases of Covid-19.

Ardern was in Whanganui, after a full day of campaigning for the upcoming election, when she was told the news. She immediately began a journey back to Wellington.

In an interview with Stuff, the Prime Minister revealed she felt "gutted".

"I spent that car ride ... you know, feeling gutted that we were in this position," she said.

"That was the only time that I allowed myself to feel that way."

"I'm not insulated from the same range of emotions other New Zealanders are going through. I know exactly how they feel. This is a hard, hard year for the world and New Zealand included," Ardern added.

Since the resurgence began, as well as trying to restrict the virus, Ardern has also been focused on stopping the spread of rumours and misinformation as well as any ill feelings towards the family at the centre of the Auckland cluster.

"If they had not gone and got proactively tested in the first place we would all be in a much worse situation," she said.

"They have literally helped save lives. I think we should only feel gratitude for those who have got tested, for those who have been proactively being tested, for those close contacts who have all gone into isolation. They have helped us get this cluster under control."

Cabinet is set to decide the fate of Aucklanders tomorrow when it meets to discuss alert level restrictions and whether the city will be lifted out of lockdown.

Auckland has been in alert level 3 since noon on August 12, and the rest of the country in level 2, after community transmission of Covid-19 was discovered in a family.

The cluster, largely confined to Auckland, has since grown to 92 and nine people are in hospital, with three in intensive care.

Moving to alert level 4 was ruled out early on, but on Friday Ardern said New Zealand would not move out of alert levels early, and must "stay the course".

Cabinet would also consider contact tracing capacity, results from the surge of testing and whether any new cases were existing contacts, or if they're new.

Ministers would also look at the source of the infections.

Amid the country's first outbreak, New Zealand went into level 4 lockdown on March 25, and moved to level 3 on April 27. The country moved into level 2 on May 13 and level 1 on June 9.

Whether the rest of the country goes back to level 1 on Thursday remains to be seen.

A new level 1, dubbed level 1.5, could be implemented to ensure complacency doesn't sneak in, including requirements such as wearing a mask on public transport and in supermarkets, social distancing and continued vigilance around hand-sanitising and remaining home if symptomatic.