All of New Zealand will remain at Alert Level 4 until at least midnight on Friday, August 27 with Auckland staying in longer, until midnight on Tuesday, August 31.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced the news at a post-Cabinet meeting media briefing this afternoon.

The nationwide lockdown will be assessed on Friday afternoon whilst Auckland's longer lockdown will be considered in a review on Monday.

All of New Zealand will remain at Alert Level 4 until at least midnight on Friday, August 27 with Auckland staying in longer, until midnight on Tuesday, August 31.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced the news at a post-Cabinet meeting media briefing this afternoon.

The nationwide lockdown will be assessed on Friday afternoon whilst Auckland's longer lockdown will be considered in a review on Monday.

The restrictions remain necessary for New Zealand to catch up on the 'head-start” that the Delta variant of Covid-19 has had, says Ardern.

Ardern warns that cases per day may get worse before they get better but believes New Zealand is prepared for that eventuality.

'The safest option for all of us right now is to hold the course for longer”, says Ardern.

'This will allow us to have additional data and assurances whether the virus has spread from our existing sites and how contained it is likely to be.”

A decision on the nationwide lockdown will be made based on whether new cases emerge outside of the current Auckland cluster, wastewater testing across the country and if any cases that do emerge, whether they were already isolating or not.

Ardern also confirms that Parliament is suspended for the coming week.

There are 35 new cases of Covid-19 in the New Zealand community to confirm today.

Of these 33 are in Auckland and two are in Wellington.

This brings the total number of cases in the community outbreak to 107, says a statement from the Ministry of Health.

All of the cases have or are being transferred safely to a managed isolation facility, under strict infection prevention and control procedures, including the use of full PPE.

"As previously indicated, it's not unexpected to see a rise in daily case numbers at this stage. At its peak last year, New Zealand had a daily total of 89 new cases," says the MOH.

"The total number of community cases in Auckland is now 99 and Wellington's number of community cases has increased to eight.

"Of the 107 cases in the cluster, 72 are already epidemiologically linked to other community cases identified in the outbreak.

"Investigations are continuing to determine whether and how the remaining 35 cases are linked to the outbreak, however, most have a plausible link on initial assessment. For example, people were at a location of interest.

"We will continue to release this information and new locations of interest as it becomes available."