New Zealand has reported 62 new locally acquired COVID-19 cases, taking the total number of cases in the latest outbreak to 210.
So far, 12 of these cases were in the capital, Wellington, while the rest were in the largest city, Auckland, Health Department director-general Ashley Bloomfield said.
In addition, there was also one new case recorded among returnees in managed isolation.
The total of 63 new cases marked the highest daily number since the outbreak began last week. Forty-one cases were recorded on Tuesday.
“While this is steady growth, it is not exponential,” Mr Bloomfield said during a press conference on Wednesday.
Mr Bloomfield said the majority of the links between cases were "within households or workplaces".
All of the cases were being transferred to a managed isolation facility "under strict infection prevention and control procedures", according to the Ministry of Health.
New Zealand will be in a nationwide lockdown until at least Friday, while Auckland will be in stage four lockdown until August 31.
Record 80,000 vaccinations
The Ministry of Health said there were now 20,383 individual contacts related to the cluster.
Formal contact has been made with 12,700 of these contacts and 62 per cent had already returned a test result.
COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said 80,000 vaccines were given yesterday — the biggest daily number to date by far.
Nearly 50,000 tests were also carried out yesterday, he added.
"It's too soon to throw in the towel," Mr Hipkins said.
"We've come this far, it would be an absolute waste for us to give up on this now. We still want to drive this particular outbreak and COVID-19 out of our community, and get back to a sense of normality."
He added that there would be upcoming changes in managing the country's borders.
The highly contagious Delta variant made it into the community in Auckland via a traveller from Sydney.
