New Zealand will stay in current Covid-19 alert levels for another week.
Next Monday, Cabinet will reconsider the alert levels. and as long as Covid-19 cases are tracking as they are now, the country outside of Auckland will move to alert level 1 at 11.59 pm that same day.
The government will consider whether or not to change restrictions around gathering sizes in Auckland, if the tweaks are agreed they will come into force on Wednesday 23 September.
But that means the country could be split across different alert levels - something the prime minister has previously advised against.
"We've got an increase in confidence that we have this outbreak in Auckland under control," government spokesperson Grant Robertson told Checkpoint.
"We're obviously seeing very small case numbers in the last few days and as long as we continue to see that then we've got a level of confidence that we can move the rest of the country to level 1, obviously, in terms of the Auckland area itself we want to move cautiously.
"We would still be asking Aucklanders we are now that when they travel to take the Auckland status with them and make sure they continue to be careful, but the confidence grows, the advice we have is that as long as we can continue to see these case numbers then we can move the rest of the country to level 1."
On 24 August, the prime minister said there was a danger in having different alert levels in regions without a closed border, as many people would be coming to and from Auckland.
But Robertson said the government is not going against its own advice.
"The advice evolves, and as I say at that point in time we had larger case numbers, we had less certainty about what the perimeter of this particular outbreak was. We now have the advice that's clear on that, the numbers have been coming down significantly.
"We know that we can now move forward. Clearly, we'll keep an eye on those case numbers, we'll obviously look to see what we can do in Auckland as well, but as we take the advice we look at the evidence that's in front of us and we're confident that we can make this move in a week's time," he said.
"There isn't an epidemiological link between every single case, but the genomic sequencing we're now doing gives us a lot of confidence that we're dealing with a single outbreak here."
It was Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield's recommendation to remove physical distancing on planes and public transport, Robertson said.
"Over time the advice on this area has evolved. Originally, we were very focused on physical distancing, then when masks came along we were told that we needed to keep both of them… The Director-General's advice has evolved to now say he believes we can move forward. He's worked closely with Air New Zealand around their overall health and safety in making sure that they're doing all of the right things to assure that safety."
Regarding the healthcare worker at an Auckland quarantine hotel, Robertson said that person's contacts are being traced, with staff logs, swipe card data, CCTV footage being reviewed.
"We do the testing weekly. That's a sensible protocol, it's not really possible to test people every single day. That's why we do the health checks. This is actually an example of the system working because the person did test negative last week. We've now given them another test and they tested positive. That's exactly what we're trying to pick up here, the system then kicks into gear. We follow up with all of those people who work around them that are being requested, we take a look at all of the CCTV footage so we can see who they've interacted with, where they've been, and that'll build the picture up for us of whether they have any contact with somebody who is from the existing clusters.
"So it's actually the system working. It's never ever going to be 100 percent internationally, we know that this is the front line against the virus, and it will happen from time to time."
Robertson said the government is working with NZ Rugby to make sure both the Wallabies and the All Blacks have appropriate training opportunities after completing isolation before the Bledisloe Cup.
There has also a claim that NZ Rugby asked for $1 million from SANZAAR to host the Rugby Championship. Robertson said he does not know anything about the claim.
"What I do know is that we, as a government, made a commitment to a financial contribution to support the hosting of the tournament. We did that because clearly it would have had some economic benefits and spin-offs for us."
