New Zealand's current Covid-19 Alert Levels will be reviewed tomorrow, with Cabinet set to eye the progress that has been made on the Auckland cluster, relying on information "right up to the hour before" they meet.
Auckland has been under Alert Level 3 and the country under Level 2 since August 12 - with the Prime Minister saying last week it would stay at those levels until next Wednesday.
Health Minister Chris Hipkins said the review would look at the latest information of the Auckland community-based cluster, including what they know about the cluster, the contact tracing around the cluster, test results across the community and the results of testing from the border.
"We'd be looking at any cases that aren't connected and we've identified one so far, so we'd be looking at any further that we can't identify a clear link.
Chris Hipkins said Cabinet would be looking at Covid-19 cases, but would not say if a decision on changing levels would be made tomorrow. (Source: Other)
Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said a key aspect was the level of testing outside of Auckland to give a picture of whether it had spread outside the city.
Dr Bloomfield said they needed to be confident to have found the "boundaries" of the current outbreak through contact tracing.
"The other piece of information that we have to report to Cabinet is, are we confident our lab capacity and our contact tracing capacity are in good shape?"
On if a decision would be made tomorrow to shift Alert Levels, Mr Hipkins said that was a "hypothetical".
"We'll see what more advice comes in overnight before I'm in a position to make any further comment on that.
"When we make those decisions, (we) rely on information right up to the hour before we sit down as a Cabinet."
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