Auckland will tomorrow morning move to alert level 3 for a week after two new Covid-19 community cases announced this evening could not be directly linked to earlier cases.

A sibling and the mother of a Papatoetoe High School student, who was a casual plus contact of the recent Auckland community cases, have tested positive for Covid-19.

The intersection of Ōtaki Gorge Road and State Highway 1 will be closed for three months from Sunday while work on the Peka Peka to Ōtaki Expressway is completed.

Private hospitals are hitting back at research which labels them a drain on the public system.

Analysis - The overarching principle of communicating with people who are vaccine-hesistant is to connect with them and their communities, rather than correcting false information, writes Jess Berentson-Shaw.

New floats for mussel farms will be trialled in rough waters over the next year in a bid to reduce the number lost at sea.

More than 200 children have completed managed isolation alone since December.

Christchurch's brand new hospital is having to pull out and replace almost 700 faulty hot water valves.

There have been no new community cases of Covid-19 reported in New Zealand today, a day after it was revealed a new case had worked a shift at an Auckland KFC outlet.

A teenager is in a stable condition in Auckland Hospital after a shooting at a park in the North Shore suburb of Northcote.

Two motorcyclists have been killed in separate crashes this afternoon.

Doctors offering telehealth services are being warned to gain clear understanding of their patients' medical histories before prescribing treatments.

Adrienne Miller comes up to the cemetery near Matakana to clean and tidy the old graves, and in so doing has unearthed the history of women, children and war veterans alike.

The Mackenzie District Mayor says the council will start using the dual names of Tekapo and Takapō despite a recent survey showing resistance to a change.

Dogs are the number one predator of Northland's brown kiwi and one of the reasons the bird's average lifespan there is only 13 years when it could be up to 60, a conservation organisation says.

An Auckland National Party MP and the principal at Papatoetoe High School are urging would-be critics of the family caught up in the latest Covid-19 community outbreak to show some compassion.

Drug companies have agreed to reveal when they pay for medical workers to attend conferences and events.

There has been one new community case reported today - a KFC worker who was on a shift at the Botany Downs store earlier this week.