New Zealand's COVID-19 Minister has told Kiwis they need to "hold their nerve" after a major jump in community COVID-19 cases to 45.
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Chris Hipkins said the jump from eight on Tuesday to 45 on Wednesday was "sobering" but didn't represent a trend.
"We have seen blips already in this outbreak ... and it's gone down again," he said.
Wednesday's cases, all in Auckland, is New Zealand's highest daily case count since September 2.
The surge has led to calls for Jacinda Ardern's government to abandon its elimination strategy, something Mr Hipkins ruled out.
"We're still pursuing COVID-19. We're still aiming to run it into the ground," Mr Hipkins said.
"We've got to hold our nerve."
Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield also urged calm.
"While the overall number today is obviously a lot higher, it is important to note many of these cases are linked to existing cases and in some sense, they were expected," he said.
"What's even more important is that we found these cases because people came forward and were tested."
Of Wednesday's 45 cases, 33 were known to be close or household contacts of existing cases.
Dr Bloomfield said 12 of the cases came from just two families, and a number of other cases were from transitional or emergency housing.
Interviews are underway with the 12 cases yet to be linked back to the outbreak.
On Wednesday, around 1.7 million Aucklanders entered their seventh straight week of lockdown to fight the Delta outbreak.
Auckland shifted from a tough alert level four lockdown to a level three lockdown, which allows for more business and in-person education, one week ago.
Dr Bloomfield urged employers of essential workers to allow their staff members to "get vaccinated today".
"Now that Auckland is at alert level three, some of our cases today may have been working at essential or permitted businesses during their infectious periods," he said.
"This emphasises the importance of everyone in Auckland abiding by alert level three measures. They are there for a reason."
The total outbreak has now seen 1,230 people infected since the identification of the first case on August 17.
Health officials report 16 Kiwis in hospital with COVID-19, including three in intensive care units.
The jump in cases come amid a resurgence of debate around New Zealand's elimination strategy.
On Wednesday, the National party released a reopening plan, which would see fully vaccinated allowed to travel internationally by Christmas.
ACT party leader David Seymour said the new cases shows "after 43 days of lockdown, it is not working".
"The eradication strategy won't work this time ... we must move from eradication to harm reduction," he said.
Earlier in the week, former Prime Minister John Key made his most significant foray into Kiwi politics since leaving office to urge Ms Ardern's government to speed up reopening.
Sir John said Ms Ardern's policies had turned New Zealand into "a smug hermit kingdom", accusing her of enthusiastically locking up New Zealanders.
Ms Ardern received support from a familiar source on Wednesday; her fiance Clarke Gayford.
On Twitter, Mr Gayford said Sir John resorted to "name slinging and disinformation".
"Was there a single new idea that wasn't already planned, discussed or in train?" Mr Gayford asked.
Australian Associated Press
