The Prime Minister has again ruled out the option of allowing South Island Alert Levels to come down sooner.

49 new cases of COVID-19 were reported on Thursday in the community, bringing the total number of cases in the community outbreak to 736.

The total number of community cases in Auckland is now 720 and 16 in Wellington. There are no reported cases in the South Island.

 Jacinda Ardern said “we want to bring all of the review for all of New Zealand through till Monday and one of the reasons for that is of course, while we have several hundred contacts that have been in the South Island, those are the ones we know,” said told media at Thursday’s briefing.

 “And while those have been contact traced, they’ve been tested, they are the ones known to us and our Ministry team – there may well be others connected to these cases that we don’t know about so Level 3 provides an extra layer of caution.”

 “Our goal is to keep Covid out of the South Island” the Prime Minister said.

 “Stepping down cautiously is the best way that we can assure that when we do left restrictions it stays that way in those businesses can remain free of some of the challenges we’re facing elsewhere.”