There are 21 new community cases of Covid-19 reported in New Zealand today, bringing the total number of people infected in the Delta outbreak to 51.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay gave an update on the outbreak this afternoon.
Eighteen of the new cases are in Auckland and three in Wellington, one of which was reported yesterday.
Among the new cases is a student who later tested positive for Covid-19 and attended an Auckland University ball of 500 people.
It follows revelations that attendees at two other two big events at Spark Arena - 1000 people at a Mitre 10 awards event last Thursday and 1000 people at a Bayleys Realty conference last Friday - have been told they are close contacts of a bar worker who later tested positive to Covid-19.
It is understood the university student was at a ball for the its Waipārūrū Hall at the Aotea Centre last Saturday night.
Meanwhile, Auckland's Royal Oak Intermediate has confirmed a bus driver who drives one of its school runs has tested positive for Covid-19.
In a post on the school's Facebook page, Board of Trustees chair Dr Andrea Green and principal Tony Coughlan said Auckland Regional Public Health were contact-tracing. The driver of Bus 003 was positive for Covid-19 while driving students home from school on Friday, August 13, Monday, August 16 and Tuesday, August 17.
"We have emailed all families and are currently working to identify the students who were on the bus in question. These students are considered close contacts, and will be required to follow Ministry of Health guidelines for getting tested and self-isolating."
It asked people who had not received an email to contact principal@royaloakint.school.nz if your child went home on Bus 003 on the above dates.
"Our thoughts are with those affected by this, and we are offering support to all staff, students, whānau and members of our community."
The school is a co-educational school catering to years 7 and 8 students in Auckland.
All positive cases were being transferred to managed isolation and quarantine facilities using strict infection prevention and control measures, McElnay said.
There are also three new Covid-19 cases to report in recent returnees today.
The total number of active cases being managed in New Zealand is currently 93, while the total number of confirmed cases is 2636.
A three-day lockdown began at 11.59pm on Tuesday August 17, after an Auckland man tested positive for the Delta variant. He had also travelled to Coromandel while infected. Initially the lockdown was for three days nationwide, except Auckland and Coromandel, which was to be in place for at least seven days.
However, the Prime Minister announced yesterday that the lockdown had been extended nationwide until 11.59pm on Tuesday, after confirmation the Delta outbreak had spread to Wellington in the lower North Island.
Ardern said today that she expected the number of cases to rise into next week. More testing centres are being opened up in Auckland (14) and Wellington (six) to meet demand and she praised the work of an "outstanding" health service.
"One of the things that we've learned from New South Wales is that the virus can continue to spread during lockdown," Ardern said of an outbreak in neighbouring Australia's most-populous state.
New South Wales today logged a record 825 cases as a Delta outbreak surges despite weeks-long lockdown.
"No one wants an extended lockdown and no one wants to see that rate of transmission, so the number one thing everyone can do right now is reduce down your contacts," Ardern said.
Ardern reasoned with Kiwis to remain calm as numbers spiked.
"The number of cases has grown again but given the large number of locations of interest and what we know about Delta, this isn't surprising. We've always said cases would rise before they fall. We do expect cases to continue to rise through to next week before they start falling away."
She said she was reticent to share "variable" modelling data which might predict the peak of the outbreak.
All cases have either been linked to the same source, or appear so, based on initial assessments. Officials believe the source of the outbreak is a border failure: a leak of the virus from a man from Sydney during his stay in a quarantine hotel facility earlier this month. A large proportion of the infected are young people under 30.
The majority of those contacts are located in Auckland and Waikato regions with a small proportion located in the rest of the North Island and the South Island.
As of 10am today, 1982 contacts were located in the Auckland and Waikato regions, 266 contacts were located throughout the rest of New Zealand, and the location of the remaining contacts is still being established.
McElnay said public health staff were rapidly interviewing cases to find out how they were infected and to determine further details of their movements.
"They're working tirelessly to investigate the cases."
She said isolating in alert level 4 means isolating yourself away from other household members, so when contacts get tested they need to remain isolated until they get their tests back.
Some 829 Waitemata health staff had been tested and all results so far were negative, with 208 results pending. All patients from affected areas have returned negative tests.
North Shore Hospital's emergency department remains closed and ambulances are being diverted to other Auckland emergency departments.
ESR have completed genome sequencing for 29 cases - including the three announced in Wellington yesterday and they are all linked to the Auckland cluster, McElnay said.
There are 41 sites around the country where wastewater testing is being done. Covid-19 continues to be detected in Auckland's wastewater.
Record turnout for testing, vaccines
Despite the rise in numbers, Ardern said there was some good news with New Zealand hitting two records yesterday, with the most number of vaccines and tests carried out.
There were 56,843 vaccines administered - the most in a single day. Ardern said 72% of Kiwis aged 40+ are either booked or have been vaccinated with at least one dose.
"This is great progress," Ardern said.
More than 150,000 vaccination booking were made yesterday.
Yesterday was also the day the most Covid-19 tests were processed in a single day, with 41,464 tests completed.
"The fact we have achieved both these results on the same day is extraordinary and is exactly what we need to do to get on top of the outbreak and for the future," Ardern said.
Since Ardern announced that the lockdown would be extended, new cases of Covid have been confirmed at the University of Auckland and two more Auckland schools. In addition, the list of locations of interest has been growing.
New Zealand had enjoyed 170 days without community transmission until Tuesday. Until this week, it had not encountered Delta - the same variant which has pushed cases in Sydney beyond breaking point.
- RNZ, AAP and NZ Herald
