There are two new cases of coronavirus in New Zealand, a top health official has revealed - one of which was detected in the community.
The remaining case was in a managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facility, Auckland Regional Public Health Service (ARPHS) Director Dr William Rainger said.
The latest COVID-19 figures were announced at a press conference from Auckland's Middlemore Hospital on Thursday afternoon.
The community case was a man linked to the existing Auckland cluster, Dr Rainger said. He's a 21-year-old family contact of someone at Americold, and was in isolation already when he tested positive.
The case in isolation is a woman in her 30s who arrived in the country from the Philippines via Hong Kong on August 29. She was staying in Christchurch's Distinction Hotel, and tested positive around day three.
There are now 92 Kiwis linked to the cluster staying in the Jet Park Hotel, Auckland's quarantine facility - 67 of which have tested positive.
There are seven with COVID-19 in hospital - one in Auckland City, two at Middlemore, two in North Shore and two in Waikato. One case each at Middlemore and Waikato are in intensive care.
Dr Rainger also revealed 16 community cases had recovered from coronavirus, which sees the number of active cases nationwide drop to 115 - 36 are returnees in MIQ and 79 are a result of community transmission.
The two new cases in the last 24 hours sees the total number of confirmed and probable cases in New Zealand jump to 1759.
'We're on top of this': Hipkins lauds testing, tracing
Another 10,521 COVID-19 tests were processed on Wednesday, taking the total number of tests carried out across the country to 788,081.
Of those, Health Minister Chris Hipkins says more than 160,000 have been undertaken since the most recent community outbreak.
In saying that, Hipkins says the vast majority of confirmed cases have been identified through contact tracing, not testing. He estimates the number of cases picked up at testing stations over the last week would be "close to zero".
"We're pretty confident we are on top of this," he said.
Overall the case numbers on a daily basis are tracking down, which Hipkins describes as "encouraging". However he still expects we'll see cases for another few weeks.
About 67,000 tests were carried out in the last week - just shy of the Ministry of Health's target of 70,000 - but a high testing rate will remain in place beyond the end of the week blitz.
Hipkins said there's always a drop-off in testing over the weekend, but that's balanced out by rates during the week, which are higher than average.
Cabinet to consider 'practical changes' to alert levels
The Health Minister says Cabinet will look at making practical changes to New Zealand and Auckland's alert levels, but stayed mum on when we could see them change.
While he wouldn't rule out the rest of the country moving to alert level 1 while Auckland stayed at alert level 2, Hipkins said Aucklanders are mobile, so major differences between regions wouldn't work.
Key to Cabinet's considerations will be the nature of the new cases.
While new cases are far from ideal, those that are infected by way of a shared household are not of great concern, as such infections are expected.
"The ones that aren't connected are the ones to worry about," Hipkins said.
All community cases have an epidemiological or genomic link to the Auckland cluster, barring one recent case which remains under investigation.
Asked how he could have confidence he's on top of the cluster when a source is still unknown, Hipkins said it's a matter of certainty versus probability.
He says all cases but the maintence worker at an Auckland MIQ facility are related to the B111 strain.
No new strain has been identified.
Another social media rumour shot down
Hipkins says he's alarmed at the number of letters he's been receiving recently expressing concern that Government would make vaccines compulsory.
While a vaccine is still at least several months away - potentially years - Hipkins says there will be no obligation for Kiwis to get a jab.
"This is a direct result of deliberate misinformation that is being spread through social media," he told media.
Hipkins says Kiwis will be encouraged to get vaccinated when such a treatment becomes widely available, but not forced to.
