Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made the call today to keep Aotearoa in lockdown until 11:59pm on Tuesday, August 31, with Auckland and Northland likely to remain at Alert Level 4 for a fortnight after.
If all goes according to plan, the rest of the country south of Auckland will then drop to level 3 at 11:59pm on Tuesday.
The additional time gives health experts a full 14-day cycle of data and information since the country went into lockdown on Tuesday night last week.
This comes after today's new community case numbers reached 70, bringing the total number in the Delta outbreak up to 347.
The decision to keep Northland in level four has been made partly due to a positive case near Warkworth, Ardern said.
"What I would say to Auckland and all of New Zealand is what you are doing is working", Ardern said.
"Already we are seeing those signs of what a difference the lockdown is making."
Bloomfield said New Zealand won't necessarily need to see zero cases in order to consider moving Auckland down a level.
"We feel we need to give as much clarity around our thinking as we can," Ardern said, but she noted more information around alert levels would be provided on Monday.