There are another 41 new community cases of Covid-19 today (Tuesday August 24), none of which are in the South Island. 

Thirty-eight of the new cases are in Auckland and three are in Wellington, director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said in a media briefing this afternoon.

The total number of community cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand is now 148. 

Yesterday (Monday August 24) the prime minister Jacinda Ardern showed a ‘heat map’ of the close contacts around New Zealand, which included locations in the Upper Clutha as well as the wider South Island.

This was one of the reasons the alert level four lockdown was extended until 11.59pm on Friday (August 27).

Ashley said there are now 15,741 contacts of Covid-19 cases which have been identified.

This ‘heat map’ shows there are close contacts in the Upper Clutha.

There are also an additional 100 locations of interest, he said.

Ashley said the Delta variant of Covid-19 was “unlike our previous experience” as it is highly transmissible and, “as we have seen, spreads rapidly”.

There are more than 10 times the number of close contacts identified in this outbreak than the previous outbreak in Auckland last year.

Eight people with Covid-19 are currently in hospital, none of them in a critical condition.

Ashley urged Kiwis to continue to follow the alert level four lockdown rules, under which people can only leave their homes for four reasons: to exercise in your neighbourhood, buy groceries,  receive medical care, and receive a Covid-19 test.

PHOTOS: Supplied