There are 35 new cases of Covid-19 in the New Zealand community confirmed today.

Of these 33 are in Auckland and two are in Wellington. This brings the total number of cases in the community outbreak to 107.

"As previously indicated, it’s not unexpected to see a rise in daily case numbers at this stage," a Ministry of Health statement reads.

"At its peak last year, New Zealand had a daily total of 89 new cases."

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All of the cases have or are being transferred safely to a managed isolation facility, under strict infection prevention and control procedures, including the use of full PPE.

The total number of community cases in Auckland is now 99 and Wellington's number of community cases has increased to eight.

"Of the 107 cases in the cluster, 72 are already epidemiologically linked to other community cases identified in the outbreak.

"Investigations are continuing to determine whether and how the remaining 35 cases are linked to the outbreak, however most have a plausible link on initial assessment.

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"For example, people were at a location of interest. We will continue to release this information and new locations of interest as it becomes available."

ESR (New Zealand's Crown Research Institute that specialises in science relating to people and communities) also continues to run whole genome sequencing on cases. Yesterday 29 samples were sequenced and all were confirmed as being linked to the Auckland outbreak.

There are three new cases in recent returnees in managed isolation facilities.

Cabinet will take a decision today on alert levels, with an announcement due at 4pm.

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On the origin of the outbreak, public health officials are continuing to investigate those who used the atrium thoroughfare at the Crowne Plaza while the earliest identified case was in the lobby, as there is a possibility of air flow between the two spaces.

A total of six people walked in the open walkway while the case was in the lobby, of those four have been identified and three have tested negative and one person is in the process of getting a test. There are two people still to be identified, which police are assisting with.

"This thoroughfare is located inside the Crowne Plaza building and is not the outside walkway which is used to access the Huawei Centre," the statement reads.

"It has been confirmed the case was indoors while a very small number of people walked in the open walkway, which is well ventilated."

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Yesterday, 35,766 tests were processed across New Zealand.

The Ministry is advising that only people who were at a location of interest, at the specified times, or have cold and flu symptoms, should get tested. Call Healthline on 0800 358 5453 for advice on testing.

ESR is today collecting wastewater samples from 41 sites throughout New Zealand for testing, covering 3.7 million New Zealanders.

There are no new findings to report today, but samples taken on Friday and Saturday returned no other unexpected detections anywhere else in the country.

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Public health staff across New Zealand continue to contact trace, with a focus on higher risk locations.

"The number of contacts has increased significantly. This is something we expected as we identify more cases and test in large numbers," the statement reads.

As of 8am today, 13,230 individual contacts have been identified – and this number will increase throughout the day, as records are fully processed.

The majority of these contacts are close contacts.

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Of these contacts, 6,773 have been contacted by public health staff and are self-isolating, and 42% have had a test.

Work is underway to contact the remaining 6,457 contacts.

There are now more than 280 locations of interest listed on the Ministry’s website.

Of these, 11 locations of interest are in Wellington, a few are scattered across the North Island and the rest are located in Auckland. There are also two flights between Auckland Wellington.

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There is now an interactive map that makes it easier to identify locations of interest, and you can also search locations.

Yesterday, 35,800 doses of the Pfizer vaccine were given nationally. This was made up of 26,835 first doses, and 8,965 second doses.

More than 2.78 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to date (to 11.59pm on 22 August).

Of these, 1.77 million are first doses and more than one million are second doses.

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NZ COVID Tracer now has 3,026,123 registered users. Poster scans have reached 327,988,169 and users have created 13,896,382 manual diary entries.

There have been 477,029 scans in the 24 hours to midday yesterday.

"It’s really pleasing to see we’ve hit three million users on the NZ COVID Tracer App," says Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield.

"Thank you to everyone who has become a user of the app and to those who continue to scan QR codes to keep a record of where they’ve been.

"Over the past week we’ve seen how important these records have become – making it easier for contact tracers as we all work to keep New Zealanders safe from COVID-19."