Coronavirus: New Zealand has another 11 confirmed new cases of COVID-19 in the community

New Zealand has another 11 new cases of COVID-19 in the community, says the Ministry of Health.

That brings the total number of active cases in the community to 31.

Nineteen cases are now confirmed as part of the Auckland outbreak, with the remaining 12 under investigation to confirm the linkage to the outbreak.

As of yesterday, all the confirmed cases were in Auckland, however, there are now three confirmed cases found in Wellington.

The Air New Zealand crew member has now been confirmed as a border-related case and not linked to the Auckland outbreak.

Genome sequencing has confirmed New Zealand's Covid-19 outbreak has come from New South Wales, Australia.

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Genome sequencing has also revealed the current positive cases are a close match with a recent returnee from Sydney on a managed red zone flight on August 7th.

The traveller returned a positive result on August 9th and was transferred from Crowne Plaza to Jet Park on that same day. They were later taken to Middlemore Hospital on 16th August.

The current cases most likely came from the traveller.

Cabinet is meeting today to make a decision on whether to extend the three-day level 4 lockdown the country went into at midnight on Tuesday. Auckland and the Coromandel will be in lockdown for seven days.

Kiwis are being urged to only leave home if needed and to wear a mask when they do.