Welcome to 1 NEWS' updates as New Zealand finds out whether its Level 4 lockdown will be extended.
Read the latest coronavirus infection figures here.
4.50pm: Ardern and Bloomfield have finished their media sessions. To recap, the Level 4 lockdown has been extended until 11.59pm on April 27 - that's next Monday.
We will then be in Level 3 for a fortnight, before Cabinet will decide about moving to Level 2.
Schools and early childhood centres will be allowed to open from Wednesday April 29.
4.40pm: The PM says while business owners may be able to access their premises this week to prepare, she says this is not an invitation for them to start trading.
4.35pm: Schools will be able to open from April 29 - with a teacher-only day on Tuesday April 28.
Bloomfield is "very confident" it's safe to open schools and early childhood centres in Level 3.
4.25pm: Back with the PM, she says Level 3 will mean placing a high level of trust and expectation in people. Police will still be highly visible, and they will ask why people are moving around.
4.20pm: Dr Ashley Bloomfield, Director-General of Health, says community testing will continue as part of surveillance measures.
4.13pm: To conclude: "Let's finish what we started".
4.12pm: She stays stay in your bubble this long weekend and reflect on the Anzacs and the sacrifices they made.
4.11pm: The PM says the worst thing that could happen would be a yo-yoing between levels.
4.09pm: She says the gains from a slightly longer lockdown give more certainty, cost us just two business days.
4.05pm: NZ will remain at Alert Level 4 for one more week, and then go to Alert Level 3 for two weeks before it is assessed again.
4.04pm: Ardern says the chain of transmission is broken.
4.03pm: The PM is speaking, and she says her thoughts are with those who have lost loved ones. She says she gets a phone call when someone dies.
3.55pm: You can watch the PM's appearance live here.
3.30pm: Should the Prime Minister move to reduce our alert leve, here is a peek at what life could look like.
3.15pm: Just a reminder, Jacinda Ardern and Dr Ashley Bloomfield will speak at 4pm. The PM will reveal whether the Level 4 restrictions will be eased. Opposition leader Simon Bridges will speak after 5pm, and we'll have that live on 1 NEWS online.
2.45pm: An Auckland man has been charged with attempting to infect three police officers with Covid-19 by spitting on them.Under the Crimes Act, it is an offence to intentionally infect - or attempt to infect - another person with a sickness or a disease.
The man claimed to have Covid-19 when being arrested last month by officers who were then put into isolation while two police cars involved were decontaminated.
2pm: A Philippine Airlines flight from Manila has just touched down in Auckland, bringing home 184 New Zealanders. They will all head into isolation or quarantine for 14 days.
1.45pm: Here is our full wrap from today's MoH announcement.
1.20pm: The Ministry of Health did tests at supermarkets in Auckland's Mangere and Henderson - all 400-odd samples came back negative.
"Targeted community testing continues to be part of our ongoing surveillance against COVID-19, which helps provide us with assurance that there is not undetected community transmission."
1.15pm: There are still 16 clusters around the country - no change.
There were 3081 tests yesterday, and over 86,000 in total.
1.07pm: There are nine new cases, seven confirmed and two probable, meaning the new combined total of infections is 1440, with 974 recoveries.
There are no further deaths.
There are 14 people in hospital, three in intensive care, with two of them critically ill.
12.55pm: Just a reminder, there is no 1pm press conference. The Ministry of Health will update its website with the latest figures, which we will have here ASAP.
12.30pm: Earlier today on Breakfast, Shaun Hendy, director of the University of Auckland’s Centre of Research Excellence in Complex Systems and Data Analytics, told John Campbell that spending another two weeks at Level 4 would give New Zealand a greater chance of eliminating the virus from the country.
12.10pm: 1 NEWS political editor Jess Mutch McKay told TVNZ 1's Midday programme there was "some feeling" at Parliament that the Level 4 lockdown may be extended.
"Some of the language we're hearing around here is that it may be extended, perhaps until Tuesday next week, after Monday, which will mark Anzac Day."
1 NEWS’ political editor gave this assessment four hours before the Government’s scheduled Covid-19 announcement. (Source: Other)
New Zealand's been at Level 4 lockdown for nearly four weeks as the country looks to reduce the impact of the Covid-19 coronavirus.
As of yesterday, there had been 1431 confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 in NZ - 912 of them have recovered.
There have been 12 deaths in New Zealand linked to coronavirus.
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