The Government has warned Aucklanders should expect to see the tail end of the cluster last for some time as it announced the extension of the city's Level 3 lockdown.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced this afternoon that Alert Level 3 restrictions would be extended until 11.59pm at Sunday, August 30.
“I know it’s been tough. I know there are many who have found it harder this time," Ms Ardern said. "In part, I imagine the reminder that this is the world’s reality, and that Covid is ever-present, is part of that.
"It is a hard reality to accept.”
"Over the course of this cluster, we have continued to see a pattern that we expected and we've continued to build links over time to the existing cases but need to prepare ourselves for, that because this is a larger cluster than usual, we will see a longer or bigger tail that usual and in part it will be because more people are connected to it," Ms Ardern said.
"The next seven days, in fact the next several weeks, will see more cases."
While all of today's eight new cases in the community have been linked to the current cluster, Auckland had its second case of a person catching the virus on a bus.
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said while it was "encouraging" that the "vast majority" of the cases could be immediately linked to existing cases, the two cases linked to a bus "do give us pause for thought".
All of Auckland Transport's vehicles have since had a second round of deep cleaning as a precaution.
A mystery case who arrived at North Shore Hospital's emergency department overnight on Friday and cannot be linked to the current outbreak remains a cause for concern, however.
"We haven't yet been able to find an epidemiological link with the current outbreak," Dr Bloomfield said.
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff expressed disappointment with the decision to extend the lockdown.
"It wasn't the news that people working in businesses that can't work at Level 3 wanted to hear," he said.
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