Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced that parts of the Waikato region will move to alert level 3 on Sunday night after two positive cases of COVID-19 emerged.
Ardern confirmed that areas surrounding Hamilton will join Auckland at Alert level 3 restrictions from 11:59pm Sunday. The areas included in the new level 3 lockdown are Raglan, Te Kauwhata, Ngaruawahia, Hamilton City and Huntly.
This comes after the Director General of Health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield announced 33 new community cases at a press conference on Sunday. Thirty two of the cases from Auckland and one from the Hamilton area taking the total outbreak to 1,328.
The second Waikato case was not a part of the Sunday case numbers and will be a part of the case numbers on Monday.
The two Waikato cases that were announced on Sunday by the Ministry of Health have yet to be linked to the Auckland outbreak.
Fifteen of the 33 cases are unlinked. Fourteen of the 27 cases reported on Saturday were infectious in the community.
The Prime Minister said there will be spot checks around these locations, but a hard boundary will not be in place. It is likely these places will be in alert level 3 for the next five days, allowing for widespread testing and contact tracing.
"In terms of management in this case, Auckland's boundary will remain in place as it stands for these new Hamilton areas," Ardern says. "There will be spot checks around these boundary areas but it will not be the same as the hard boundary we have been operating for the Auckland outbreak."
"The reason for that is simply a practical one. The Hamilton area simply has too many feeder roads for us to successfully operate a hard boundary around the outskirts of the area."
The PM asked Hamilton residents to follow the rules so they can move out of level 3 as quickly as possible.
"So we ask people please to maintain compliance and there will be spot checks in place."
Ardern said the Hamilton restrictions are being treated as its own separate outbreak and won't affect Cabinet's decision when making an announcement on Auckland's alert level status on Monday.
