Wellington, Aug 14 (TIWN) New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Friday announced a 12-day extension of the country's Covid-19 restrictions, after a cluster of cases in Auckland city increased to 29 amid the second and stronger wave of the pandemic.

There are four “alert levels” in New Zealand, and Auckland has been on Level 3 since Wednesday.

The rest of the country is on Level 2, and Ms Ardern said both would be extended.

New Zealand has had success containing coronavirus, and went 102 days without a community transmission.

The origin of the cluster in Auckland - New Zealand's largest city with a population of 1.5 million - is still being investigated.

Why 12 days?

The PM said the decision to extend the restrictions was “in keeping with our cautionary approach and New Zealand's philosophy of going hard and going early”.

She said that, in 12 days’ time, she thought “the cluster will be identified, will be isolated, and we can move to Level 2 in Auckland with confidence”.

All 29 cases “remain linked to one cluster centred in Auckland”, Ms Ardern said, adding that 38 people are in government quarantine.

• How New Zealand went 'hard and early' to beat Covid-19

But she said that, although the first cases of the new outbreak were confirmed in Auckland on Tuesday, contact-tracing had uncovered an earlier case, involving a shop worker in the Mt Wellington district of Auckland who became sick on 31 July.