New Zealand will remain in a nationwide lockdown until midnight on Tuesday, August 31, when it will move to Alert Level 3.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, in the 3pm press conference, said the alert level will be reviewed by Cabinet a week later, on Monday, September 6.

But those from the southern Auckland boundary to the top of the country will remain in Alert Level 4 lockdown longer, with a review on Monday. It is likely to be for at least a further two weeks.

Ardern said there are three reasons why the South Island remains at Alert Level 4 for four more days.

"The first is that will give us the confidence of an almost full 14-day cycle since our first case was discovered, especially given we had contacts across all parts of the country, and over 300 in the South Island.

"The second reason is that we do have cases in Wellington, that while currently contained, did have contacts that have further testing due over the coming days.

"As I've said, we also had those contacts in the south and that two week transmission cycle is very, very helpful in terms of our confidence.

"And thirdly, we did see a positive wastewater result in the South Island, namely Christchurch yesterday. As noted by ESR yesterday, it's likely that this is a result of positive cases in a managed isolation facility, but further tests and a few extra days will allow us to better answer that question."

There are 70 new community cases of Covid-19 today, all in Auckland.

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This brings the total number of cases in the community outbreak to 347, with 333 of them in Auckland and 14 in Wellington.

"We maybe seeing the beginning of a plateau in cases", Ardern said.

"Our job is to keep up the hard work in order to bend and then flatten that curve.

"We are doing really well and we have evidence that what we are doing is working. But caution is still required."

She said Delta is definitely more infectious and moves more quickly.

"By far the most effective tool we have now is level four."

Of the cases reported yesterday, roughly half were household contacts.

"Unfortunately we know from Australia that household members are almost universally becoming infected with Covid-19. That means we can expect our numbers to continue for some time as significant numbers of household contacts continue to test positive."

This transmission is occurring when people are asymptomatic, before they know they have Covid-19. 

Here's the alert level 3 summary from Government:

Alert Level 3 — Restrict

High risk the disease is not contained.

Risk assessment

• There are multiple cases of community transmission.
• There are multiple active clusters in multiple regions.

Range of measures that can be applied locally or nationally

• Stay home in your bubble, other than for essential personal movement, including going to work or school if you have to, or for local recreation.
• Keep 2 metres apart from people you do not know outside home, or 1 metre in controlled environments such as schools and workplaces.
• Stay within your immediate household bubble, but you can expand this to reconnect with close family/whānau, enable caregiving, or support isolated people. This extended bubble should remain exclusive.
• Schools (years 1 to 10) and Early Childhood Education centres can safely open, but with limited capacity. Children should learn at home if possible.
• You must work from home unless it is not possible.
• Businesses cannot have customers on site, unless it is a supermarket, bank, primary produce retailer, pharmacy, petrol station or hardware store providing goods to trade customers, or it is an emergency or critical situation.
• Other businesses can open premises, but customers cannot enter.
• Low-risk local recreation activities are allowed.
• Public facilities are closed, for example, libraries, museums, cinemas, food courts, gyms, pools, markets.
• Gatherings of up to 10 people are allowed but only for weddings, civil union ceremonies, funerals and tangihanga. Physical distancing and public health measures must be maintained.
• Healthcare services should use virtual, non-contact consultations if possible.
• Inter-regional travel is highly limited, for example for critical workers, with limited exemptions for others.
• People at high risk of severe illness, such as older people and those with existing medical conditions, are encouraged to stay at home where possible, and take additional precautions when leaving home. You may choose to work.

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