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National | 1pm Update

Level 3: Hamilton, Raglan, Huntly, Te Kauwhata, Ngaruawahia from 11:59pm tonight

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Dr Ashley Blloomfield have held an unscheduled media conference Sunday afternoon following news of two new community cases in Waikato.

One case is a person in their 50s in Raglan and the other is a person in their 40s in Hamilton East. The two cases are connected but have not as yet been connected to Auckland.

In light of the new Waikato cases, Prime Minister Ardern said from 11:59pm Sunday night, Raglan, Huntly, Te Kauwhata, Ngaruawahia and Hamilton City will all move to level 3 restrictions. These restrictions will apply for the next five days.

There will not be hard borders as in Auckland as there are too many feeder roads into the Hamilton area, the Prime Minister said.

Ardern said it was important people get vaccinated.

"It is not a coincidence that those in our current [Waikato] outbreak have not been vaccinated," she said.

There are a total of 33 new community cases today, with 32 Auckland-based and one in Waikato. The second Waikato case will be included in Monday's cases.

26 cases are in hospital, the majority in Auckland and one in Waikato Hospital. There are three cases in ICU or HDU at Middlemore Hospital.

In terms of the level of Māori vaccinations, Ardern said, "I would describe it as slower but not that it is impossible. It has been slower but you can see in our 65 plus rate it's really high for our Māori population. So that to me demonstrates what's possible."

Dr Bloomfield said his understanding is that Minister Peeni Henare is "not going to be happy until those rates go up".

Prime Minister Ardern said her personal view was that Saturday's lockdown protest at Auckland Domain was "illegal", "morally wrong" and a "slap in the face for all Aucklanders".