Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield says New Zealand should expect further cases of COVID-19 as the Government races to track the extent of the outbreak.
On Tuesday afternoon, four members of the same family were diagnosed with COVID-19 without a link to overseas travel or border facilities.
On Wednesday, Auckland was put into alert level 3 and the rest of the country entered alert level 2. Then on Thursday, it was revealed a student at Mount Albert Grammar School had also contracted the virus, having caught it from the family of four.
Dr Bloomfield told The AM Show further cases are inevitable.
"We are fully expecting more cases," he said on Thursday.
But there is an upside to this, according to Dr Bloomfield.
"It is good in the sense that we are testing close and casual contacts - we are doing wide community testing because we want to find the cases. The sooner we find them, the sooner we can get them and any close contacts into self-isolation."
There are currently four probable cases of COVID-19, which Dr Bloomfield said could be confirmed at the 1pm press conference on Thursday.
He said although he is confident he and the Government are doing a good job in tracing the outbreak, there is more work to be done.
"We don't know yet the extent of the outbreak - that's our absolute priority - find the extent and ring-fence it," he told The AM Show.
He added that come Friday afternoon, the results of the influx of people who got tested for COVID-19 would inform the Government's decision on whether to extend the lockdown period.
Currently, Auckland will remain in alert level 3 until Friday night.
