WATCH LIVE: The Ministry of Health's Chief Science Adviser, Dr Ian Town is providing an update on the Covid-19 response at 1.30pm.

Specifically, Dr Town will be talking about the surveillance measures for monitoring new variants of the virus in New Zealand.

Dr Town will be joined by the Ministry's Chief Testing Adviser, Kirsten Beynon, and the Ministry's Lead Science Adviser, Dr Fiona Callaghan.

The briefing will be live-streamed on the Ministry of Health website