New Zealand's level 4 lockdown has been extended nationwide until 11.59pm on Tuesday after confirmation the Covid-19 outbreak has spread to Wellington.
New Zealand's level-4 lockdown has been extended nationwide until 11:59pm on Tuesday after confirmation the Covid-19 outbreak has spread to Wellington.
Auckland faces an even longer lockdown, until at least late August, with the director of health Ashley Bloomfield confirming he wanted an extension - that is now likely to be announced on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern would not directly answer questions on the matter, saying it was too soon to say what this outbreak would mean in the long term for Auckland.
While the country waits in lockdown, thousands of Aucklanders toughed it out again in queues to get a Covid test.
Joshua van Wyk and Megan Flatt arrived at the Northcote testing centre at 7.10am to find about 200 cars in front of them in the queue. They finally had a test nearly 10 hours later.
Both essential workers, the pair had already spent seven hours at the Albany testing centre yesterday but were unable to get tested.
"If they are asking us to get tested, there should be a better way," van Wyk said.
Ardern said the country is in a reasonable position but that it's still early days.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand still needed to be vigilant and extended the nationwide lockdown. Photo / Mark Mitchell
"It is too soon to draw any reasonable conclusions," Ardern said after a Cabinet meeting where it was decided lockdown would be extended.
"We still need to be very vigilant."
"We are still waiting on a large number of tests to be returned which will help us know the extent of this outbreak," Ardern said.
"We do know we are dealing with an outbreak that is not isolated to Auckland, with cases in Wellington."
The infectious period of the virus still stretched back to before lockdown was imposed.
Ardern said extending the nationwide lockdown until Tuesday gave officials more time to assess the situation and be in a better position to make decisions going forward.
No part of the country could come out of level 4, Ardern said.
"It's just not safe."
"We've got to be vigilant...we are not in a position to let anyone in the country to leave level 4," she said.
The three new Wellington cases were in Auckland at the weekend and returned to the capital before lockdown began.
Two of the cases were in a household and travelled back by car. The third person flew back but flight details were yet to be released.
Bloomfield revealed that the Wellington cases were across two households - and that locations of interest included four cafes and restaurants, one pharmacy, and one medical centre.
There were also four petrol stations relating the pair who drove from Auckland to Welington.
There were hundreds of people who had been at the locations of interest outside of Auckland, Ardern said, but she didn't know specifically how many.
