Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield have announced Auckland will move to Alert Level 3 from 11.59pm Tuesday September 21, while the rest of the country will stay at Alert Level 2.

Auckland will stay at level three for at least two weeks, while the rest of New Zealand will remain at Alert Level 2 for the same period, until Auckland moves to at least level 2.

Three positives were reported last night and this morning, with further information given on the minor outbreak. 

Jacinda says the vast majority of confirmed cases over the last few weeks have all been close contacts and family members. 

She says the next stage of Auckland’s plan is to “keep bubbles tight”. 

On the minor outbreak, a prisoner and close family contacts from Hauraki were identified as the positive cases, with court staff and police tested today. 

The final household member of the northern Hauraki house where the remand prisoner stayed has now been tested and results are pending.

An investigation into the epidemiological link (exact route of infection) is ongoing – our working hypothesis being that the individual was infected in Auckland after leaving prison, rather than by someone in the local community where he was staying.

Further tests, including whole genome sequencing of the first close contacts, are due tomorrow.

The ongoing investigation from Auckland Regional Public Health is looking to establish epidemiological links to the wider Auckland outbreak, guided by the whole genome sequencing results as they become available.

The five further household members isolating at home returned negative results yesterday, giving us confidence that they have not been infectious in the community.

All three positive cases, and an accompanying adult caregiver, have been moved to a quarantine facility.

To date negative results have been returned from testing of close contacts among prison staff, other prisoners, police and court staff.

A pop-up testing centre in the northern Hauraki town of Wharekawa marae in Whakatīwai has been busy today testing locals. Waikato DHB reports 340 tests have been taken as of 2pm today.