Speaking at a press conference today, New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that the new cluster of coronavirus cases detected in Auckland remains the sole known cluster and all new cases are linked to a single source, The Guardian reports.
As such, Auckland will remain at "level 3" lockdown while the rest of the country will stay at "level 2" for the next 12 days, with the situation to be reviewed on August 21. Government wage subsidies are to be extended across the country for the period concerned.
"As we have said from the start, our overall Covid-19 strategy remains elimination," Ardern said. "That means stamping out the virus whenever it comes back."
New Zealand was thought to have eliminated the virus, with over 100 days without a single new case, until the last few weeks.