New Zealand’s COVID-19 outbreak has worsened, with 21 new community cases taking the current Delta outbreak to 51.

The new cases – 18 from Auckland and three from Wellington – is NZ’s worst day for community transmission since April 2020.

NZ is on day four of a national lockdown which will last for at least seven days – and probably much longer – as Jacinda Ardern’s government strives to execute its elimination strategy.

Ms Ardern said the case numbers “weren’t surprising” and would continue to grow.

“We’ve always said cases would rise before they fall. We do expect cases to continue to rise through to next week before they start falling away,” she said.

-AAP