There are 172 new Covid-19 cases in the community on Saturday, the Ministry of Health has announced.
Of the new cases, 148 are in Auckland, 12 in Waikato, four in Northland, three in Bay of Plenty, four in Lakes District and one in Wellington.
Seventy cases are in hospital across Auckland (68), Northland (1) and Waikato (1).
Five of the cases are in ICU or HDU.
Of Saturday's 172 cases, 75 are epidemiologically linked., with 97 still to be linked to the outbreak.
The ministry confirmed Wellington's Covid-19 case, which was announced as a weak positive on Friday.
A second swab of the case, which 1News understands to be a fully-vaccinated construction worker from Auckland working in the city, had come back positive.
The result, along with their earlier weak positive swab, indicated the case is in the early stages of infection, the ministry said.
So far the test results from the case's co-workers have come back negative.
Anyone in the Wellington region with Covid-19 symptoms, no matter how mild, is urged to get tested.
The first location of interest — a Countdown on Lambton Quay — was named earlier on Saturday.
Bay of Plenty's three cases are located in Tauranga (2) and Mount Maunganui.
The cases in Tauranga are from the same household and investigates are underway into the source of their infections.
The Mount Maunganui case is connected to an earlier case.
There is another positive case in the region, but they are being added to Sunday's numbers.
They tested positive after presenting to Tauranga Hospital's ED late last night.
The health risk is deemed low, but out of an "abundance of caution" one ward at the hospital has been closed to new patients and visitors.
Three staff members have also been stood down.
Of the new cases in the Lakes District, two are connected to Taupō's cluster.
One of them is in Rotorua Hospital. The other cases are in Rotorua and one of them is linked to an existing case, while investigations are continuing into the other.
Northland's four cases are located in Kaitāia, Ruakākā and Dargaville.
They are all close contacts of existing cases and were already isolating.
The fourth case lives in Auckland.
On Friday, 198 cases were announced in the community.
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