health authorities officially declared the auckland august cluster to be closed. on 6 november, a new community transmission (a managed isolation worker) was reported in auckland. following the detection of a positive case on a wellington–auckland flight on 9 november, the small towns ōtorohanga and kawhia were placed on high alert, leading to the closure of ōtorohanga college's hostel and kawhia hotel after the infected individual visited them. on 12 november, the two new community cases were an auckland university of technology student living in vincent street residences in the auckland cbd who worked at an a-z collections store in 61 high street and a new zealand defence force worker working at a managed isolation and quarantine facility. the sole border case that day had arrived from los angeles on 9 november and tested positive on the third day. the following day, the aut student was linked to the defence force cluster in auckland and designated case d. she also stated that health officials who had interviewed her had made numerous errors in recording her previous whereabouts, actions, and contacts due to the lack of chinese language translator. she also said that this miscommunication had led to her, her employer and their families receiving abusive online messages. on 14 november, health authorities confirmed that the neighbour of an auckland woman who tested positive for covid-19 has returned a weak positive result for covid-19. this case was classified as being under investigation. on 15 november, two of the three new cases were reported at the border while one case was identified as the "weak positive" community transmission under investigation yesterday. on 21 november, the new community case was a border worker who was a close contact of one of the existing positive cases in the november quarantine cluster. on 24 november, a second case was confirmed by authorities at the border. on 26 november, it was reported that six members of the pakistani national cricket team had tested positive for covid-19 while undergoing quarantine in christchurch. team members were also cautioned for flouting self-isolation protocols. on 29 november, one new cases was reported in managed isolation while a member of the pakistani cricket team was added to the number of active cases. in addition, 18 close contacts of an air new zealand staffer who tested positive for covid-19 have been identified and tested. december 2020 date cases recoveries deaths active cases sources newtotal newtotal newtotal bordercommunityothertotal 132,04931,962025675072 212,06011,963025683172 392,069111,974025673070 402,06991,983025574061 592,078111,994025563059 602,07831,997025551056 712,07911,998025532055 862,08582,006025490554 932,08822,008025550055 10----------no update 1162,09222,010025570057 12----------no update 1342,09652,015025560056 1402,09602,015025560056 15----------no update 1642,100172,032025430043 17----------no update 1882,11022,034025510051 19----------no update 2062,11622,034025550055 2152,12112,035025590059 2272,128172,052025490049 23----------no update 24----------no update 25----------no update 26----------no update 27162,144152,069025500050 28----------no update 2972,15182,077025490049 30----------no update 31112,16252,082025550055 on 7 december, the ministry of health announced that it would be reducing the frequency of its daily covid-19 updates to four days a week: monday, wednesday, friday, and sunday. on 12 december, an air new zealand crew member, who had returned from the united states on 9 december, tested positive for covid-19. on 13 december, four new cases were reported at the border including the air new zealand crew member reported yesterday. alert levels timeline datealert level new zealandauckland region 21 march 20202 23 march 2020 3 26 march 2020 4 28 april 2020 3 14 may 2020 2 9 june 2020 1 12 august 2020 2 3 31 august 2020 2 2.5 22 september 2020 1 2.5 24 september 2020 1 2 7 october 2020 1 1 notes the large increase in recovered cases on these dates is due to changes in case definitions. starting from 16 december 2021, active cases were automatically considered recovered after 21 days, after previously requiring clearance from a medical practitioner. on 4 march 2022 this period was reduced to 10 days, and from 18 march it was reduced further to 7 days. changes in the number of deaths reported on these dates are due to redefinitions of covid deaths. initially, a covid death was reported when covid-19 was a confirmed or likely cause of death. starting on 10 march 2022, covid deaths were reported automatically when a person died within 28 days of testing positive for covid-19, or when deaths were clearly linked to covid-19 after 28 days. from 26 july 2022, a covid death is reported when covid-19 is considered the underlying or a contributory cause; previously reported deaths not meeting the new definition were removed from the total number of covid deaths. the testing data is reported with prioritised ethnicity. if a person has multiple ethnicities, they are reported only as a single ethnicity with the following order of precedence: māori, pacific, asian, middle eastern/latin american/african, other, european. this is in contrast to total response ethnicity, where a person with multiple ethnicities is reported under all ethnic groups they identify with.