All of New Zealand will stay in alert level four until Friday (August 27) at 11.59pm. 

“The safest option for all of us right now is to hold the course for longer,” prime minister Jacinda Ardern said in a media briefing this afternoon (August 23). 

The Delta variant of Covid-19 had gained a “head start,” the PM said, and close contacts are scattered around the country and not limited to Auckland and Wellington.

A ‘heat map’ of contacts the PM presented showed there were contacts in the Southern Lakes district and around the South Island.

There are more than 320 locations of interest, and more than 13,000 contacts recorded - far more than in any other outbreak in New Zealand, Jacinda said.

“We are still very much in the thick of this outbreak,” she said. “Cases may continue to get worse.”

Early estimates of the transmission rate of this outbreak suggest one person may infect six or more others, she said. 

“This number needs to be less than one in order for the virus to be stamped out.”

Auckland will remain in alert level four until at least August 31, the PM said. 

The alert level settings for the rest of the country will be reviewed on Friday afternoon, and the PM said officials will be looking to see if any cases emerge outside of Auckland; whether wastewater testing is negative; and whether any new cases have been isolating.

Under alert level four people can only leave their homes for food, exercise in their neighbourhood, medical treatment or Covid-19 tests. 

There are currently 107 community cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand.

PHOTO: Supplied