Coronavirus: NZ has 19 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the community

New Zealand has 19 new cases of Covid-19 in the community, says Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield.

All of the new cases are in Auckland, except one in Upper Hauraki.

Bloomfield said they were expecting another 30 cases in the coming days, as 19 of the newer cases were linked to emergency or transitional housing.

Today a total of 992 cases are now reported as having recovered from Covid-19. All of the Wellington cases are recovered.

That brings the total number of active cases in the community in Auckland to 257 (the total number of cases in this outbreak is now 1,249).

There are 18 people in hospital, including four patients in intensive care.

Auckland is currently at alert level 3 until 11.59pm on Tuesday 5 October.

The rest of the country is at alert level 2.

New Zealand has had 3,917 confirmed cases since the pandemic began last year.