Cabinet will meet on Friday afternoon to confirm whether or not Alert Level 4 restrictions need to be extended.
News of any changes would be announced at a media conference at 3pm on Friday, the Prime Minister's Office says.
On Tuesday, Ardern said Auckland and Coromandel would be at Alert Level 4 for at least seven days, while the rest of the country would be at the alert level for at least three days, or until 11.59pm Friday.
The Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield told Breakfast earlier on Thursday his team was in the process of compiling data so it could advise Cabinet.
The Prime Minister says officials have tracked the outbreak to a traveller on a red flight from Australia who later become ill. (Source: Other)
That advice would be based on data from today and Friday, he said.
“The important thing is however long the lockdown is, we stick with it."
Ardern said on Thursday afternoon there was some optimism now as authorities have established the likely source of the latest Covid-19 Delta outbreak was a Sydney returnee .
“It means that alongside the what, we now believe we have a good handle on the how and where,” she said.
“That said, it is well-known globally that Delta is tougher than previous variants of Covid. So, while we have further information to inform our response, we also know it is going to be a tough fight that we all need to play our part in.”
Bloomfield noted during the briefing that testing from numerous wastewater sites around the country on Monday and Tuesday had all returned negative results. Positive samples were found in three Auckland sites.
"The sampling collected on Monday returned positive results for three Auckland sites - Rosedale on Auckland's North Shore and the eastern and western interceptors," Bloomfield said.
"Sampling from Tuesday at the St George site in Auckland, a sub-catchment of the western interceptor that collects waste water from the Waitakere area, also tested positive.
"This follows negative results from samples from these locations on the 11th of August."
Bloomfield added further results from around other sites in Auckland are expected later on Thursday before testing also comes back for the Coromandel-Thames area on Friday.
Meanwhile, the cut-off time for some people to travel home has been extended. This will apply for people flying from Queenstown or travelling across the Cook Strait on a ferry.
Cabinet has extended the cut-off time to 11.59pm Friday.
“This applies only to people needing to return home and is in response to the large amount of demand we have.”
It comes after calls from Air New Zealand that it be given more time to transport people home, with hundreds still stranded in Queenstown , in particular.
There were 11 new cases of Covid-19 in the community announced today. All are in Auckland.
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