There are no new Covid-19 cases in the community today after some "strong" testing numbers in the last 48 hours.
There are three new cases of Covid-19 in our managed isolation facilities.
Covid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins and health chief Ashley Bloomfield announced the latest information on new cases of Covid-19 at the Beehive this afternoon.
Cabinet has agreed to make face coverings on public transport a requirement for all of New Zealand, Hipkins said.
At midnight on Wednesday, Auckland moved out of level 3 lockdown after Cabinet - on health advice from Bloomfield - decided the Covid cases were well-contained and it was safe to move the region into alert level 2.
There were three new cases picked up at the border who are in managed isolation, Dr Bloomfield said.
Bloomfield urged Kiwis to check the locations of interest identified by the Ministry of Health and follow the instructions for each location.
As of 11.30am today, all 31 close contacts from Papatoetoe High School have tested negative - besides the student who tested positive yesterday.
There were 1490 casual plus contacts - of those, 1398 have tested negative.
Ninety-one results remained outstanding, but of those health officials were working to match 75 results with health records.
Bloomfield said any student or teacher at every school in New Zealand who felt ill should stay home and get advice about whether to get a test. Papaptoetoe school is closed until Monday.
The genome sequencing on the cases announced yesterday - the 12-year-old girl and the 16-year-old - is identical to the other family who tested positive and Bloomfield said the chain of transmission has been proven to be the Papatoetoe High School student infecting her classmate.
Student worked at McDonald's
One of the cases yesterday worked a "short shift" at McDonald's on Cavendish Drive and anyone who was there at the same time is considered low-risk.
Some co-workers were identified as close contacts and will be self-isolating for 14 days and tested twice.
Vaccine programme
The vaccination programme for the 12,000 frontline border workers is still on track to begin on Saturday after a successful end-to-end dry run.
"The trial run took place in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch yesterday afternoon, ahead of the vaccination programme formally kicking off on Saturday," Hipkins said.
"Officials have been working on logistics for months, and the dry run gave them an opportunity to stress test the system, identify any gaps and put plans in place for any event."
Hipkins said the systems were "robust and flexible".
"Testing included things such as vaccines being dropped and technology systems being temporarily unavailable, and included the arrival of a thermal protection box used to transport the vaccine to validate the safe and secure handover process."
One hundred vaccinators will start to receive their vaccines tomorrow.
Source investigation
The most likely source for the new outbreak remains the airport link from the LSG Sky Chefs worker who tested positive, but there is still no clear chain of transmission, Bloomfield said.
A "possible genomic similarity" has been identified between the recent cases and someone who tested positive while in managed isolation at the Four Points Sheraton in Auckland.
LSG Sky Chefs, based in Māngere, made the announced in a statement to media just before 10.30am.
"A comprehensive test of all LSG Sky Chefs employees - conducted mainly on site by a task force from the local health authority - showed that no other member of the workforce is infected," a spokeswoman for the company said.
"All test results returned 100 per cent negative."
A health expert has blasted the Government's alert-level responses of the past week, saying people were confused over an inconsistent approach - and distressed at the "political theatre" of the Beehive announcements.
Aucklanders are waking up to more freedom today but the source of the latest outbreak, which now involves six confirmed community cases, remains unknown.
And Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is warning that although the outbreak is contained, there is "every chance" more community cases will be found.
But both she, and director general of health Ashley Bloomfield, are confident the Auckland outbreak has been "contained".
However, Auckland University Professor of Medicine Des Gorman said today the Government was "all over the place" in determining the level of risk.
Asked by Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking whether the move to level 2 was the right call for Auckland, Gorman said: "It really depends upon how you view risk and what risk you're prepared to live with.
"I'd say that over the last week it's been impossible to follow the response of the Government in terms of determining what the level of risk is that they're living with.
"For example, the Ministry of Health on Saturday night decided not to tell the Government for 12 hours - for 12 hours, according to the Prime Minister - that there was an outbreak, which meant that any opportunity she had to shut down the Big Gay Out and America's Cup [on Sunday] had gone.
"You have to say that in that context, we're prepared to live with a lot of risk. And then we went to level 3, which means we're not prepared to live with any risk at all. And now we've gone to level 2, which means we're prepared to live with a modest level of risk.
"I think we're all over the place in terms of our risk acceptance.
"What's the right thing to do depends entirely on how much risk you're prepared to live with. I don't think we've sorted that basic premise out."
Gorman believed the responses were being driven by optics, not science.
Masks compulsory on public transport
Hipkins reminded all New Zealanders they now have to wear face coverings on public transport.
The rest of the country is now in alert level 1 but masks are still mandatory on public transport.
This requirement will be reviewed by Cabinet on Monday alongside the current alert levels.
The Cook Strait ferry is an exception to the masks on public transport rule.
In Ubers and taxis, drivers have to wear masks and passengers are encouraged to wear one.
Hipkins said the spike in Covid Tracer scans needed to continue.
"Everybody please keep scanning QR Codes."
