New Zealand

The nest, originally the size of a two-person tent, was discovered in the Karekare beach area of the regional park.

Hanging high in a tree, the nest is built from a collection of sticks, bark and leaves.

Auckland Council said it would have been home to tens of thousands of wasps.

The nest is believed to have been expanding for up to two years to its final size of about 1m x 2m x 2.5m.

There was no media conference today.

In a statement, the Health Ministry said both of today's new cases had an epidemiological link to an existing case and they were both associated with the bereavement events sub-cluster that was linked to the Mt Roskill Evangelical Fellowship group.

The ministry said one of the new cases is a student at Sunnyvale School in Henderson.

In a statement, the Ministry of Health says one of the imported cases was a man in his 20s who arrived from the Philippines on 3 September and was at a managed isolation facility when he tested positive on day 3 of his stay.

The other is a female in her late teens who arrived on the same flight from the Philippines and also tested positive on day three, it says.

Four further cases have been found in isolation.

Health Minister Chris Hipkins and Deputy Director-General of Health Robyn Shearer have given today's official Covid-19 briefing.

There are nine new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand today, Shearer says, five in the community and four in managed isolation.

All the new cases are epidemiologically linked to the Auckland cluster, she says, three linked to the Mt Roskill evangelical church and two contacts of previously known cases.

Health Minister Chris Hipkins said the government would not use any information collected through testing for immigration purposes.

"Regardless of your personal circumstances, if you're asked to get a test or you're in that group that's at greater risk, we won't use that information to punish you in some other way - and I can't state that enough," Hipkins said.

However Collins, who represents Manukau ward, said Pacific people remained fearful of getting tested because of what had happened historically to people who overstayed their visas, such as dawn raids.

There were also two new cases in managed isolation.

There was no media conference today. In a written statement, the Health Ministry said 10 of the new community cases were clearly epidemiologically linked to the Auckland cluster.

It said six cases were linked to the Mt Roskill Evangelical Church, including four within the same household and two who attended church services.

Four other cases are contacts of previously reported confirmed cases.

Dr McElnay says one case is an imported case, a woman in her 20s who tested positive in Christchurch in managed isolation on day three of her stay. The woman arrived on 22 August from Turkey via London and Hong Kong.

The other six cases have all been linked to the current cluster, one via a workplace and the others are household contacts of previous cases.

She says 2455 close cases have been identified, 2404 of these have been contacted.

Brenton Tarrant also planned to burn down the mosques, wanting to "inflict as many fatalities as possible".

The Australian has pleaded guilty to 51 counts of murder, 40 attempted murders and one charge of terrorism.

Tarrant, 29, faces life in prison, possibly without parole - a sentence never before imposed in New Zealand.

The attacks, parts of which the gunman streamed live online, sent shockwaves around the world and prompted New Zealand to make swift changes to its gun laws.

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said one of the confirmed cases is an imported case that was picked up at the Four Points by Sheraton Hotel in Auckland.

The case is a woman in her 30s and it was picked up on day 12 of testing.

The other eight cases are in the community and all epidemiologically linked with the main cluster. Among them, one is linked via travel on a bus, one at a church and two in a workplace.

There are now 1332 confirmed cases, with 351 probable cases in total.

Nineteen of the active cases are imported.

Hundreds of seasonal workers have been stranded in New Zealand over recent months, some with expiring visas.

Pacific leaders had already raised concern about those with uncertain immigration status missing out on assistance or healthcare because of fear of being discovered.

However the minister, Chris Hipkins, encouraged them to get tested for Covid-19 if they needed to.

"We will not use the information collected through the Covid-19 testing process for other purposes, including for immigration purposes," Mr Hipkins said.