The northern part of Northland will go to alert level three from 11.59pm tonight through to Monday, 8 November midnight, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says.
Watch the announcement here:
The decision will be reviewed by Cabinet on Monday.
A boundary running through the centre of Hokianga Harbour to the Mangamuka Junction on SH1 to the Kaeo River Bridge on SH10 and East Bay will be in place. There will also be police presence.
Hipkins says despite extensive contact tracing interviews, they have not been able to find any epidemiological or person-to-person link with any other cases in Northland for two cases.
First, the Taipa case was announced yesterday and the second case, confirmed today, is a household contact.
These two cases are based in the Far North and quite separate from the rest of the active cases in the region, he says.
"It's unclear at this point how they could have possibly picked up the virus, this means there is a strong possibility of one or more missing links in the chain of transmission and that means there could be undetected community transmission occurring right now in Northland."
Testing and contact tracing will continue to detect any missing links, Hipkins says.
Other measures like surveillance testing via wastewater samples may not be as effective in the region because some people are using septic tanks.
Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield says there are locations of interest from these two cases and officials have a good picture of their movements.
"There was some debate about whether or not there was a need to increase the alert level in the Far North, however, the director of public health and I settled on the fact that the origin of these cases is unknown."
Testing of close contacts have come back negative so far and the cases are cooperating with officials, Bloomfield says.
The risk assessment for the whole of Northland is low, and for the affected area in the Far North it is low to medium, he says.
There are 11 active cases in total in Northland.
Slow vaccine uptake
Hipkins acknowledged that Northland's vaccination rates are lower than the rest of the country, and said alert levels restrictions are an important protection tool until those vaccination rates go up.
Northland is one of the lowest-performing regions for vaccinations, with just 64 percent of the region fully vaccinated - second-last, only ahead of Tairāwhiti.
It is also the region that needs the largest number of first doses to reach 90 percent of the eligible population, with more than 17,000 doses required to reach that milestone.
The government's proposed traffic light system would see restrictions across New Zealand reduced, and lockdowns ended, once every DHB in the country reaches 90 percent double dosed.
"These lower rates of vaccination make the risk of an outbreak that much greater, especially amongst the 11,000 Māori in the region, who are still unvaccinated."
He emphasised the prime minister's message, that the Auckland boundary was currently keeping the virus out of the rest of the country for the most part, but that would not last forever.
"We need people to get the vaccine before the virus reaches them first."
Hipkins says Northland has enough vaccine doses to get numbers up.
"It could happen very quickly, we've got the capacity, we've got the doses there in Northland ready to go, we just need people to come forward."
Far North District Mayor John Carter told Checkpoint the level 3 lockdown for the top of Northland is "disappointing but it's the right decision".
"We need to keep people safe. We also need them to be tested if they're unwell and most importantly please go and get vaccinated."
Earlier today, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Māori-Crown relations Minister Kelvin Davis, who is also the MP for Te Tai Tokerau, were in Northland viewing the rollout of vaccinations.
Hipkins says Ardern was not in the area that is going into level 3.
