New Zealand's Delta variant outbreak has spread beyond Auckland, prompting Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, to put additional regions into a snap five-day lockdown.
There were 32 new coronavirus cases in the country's largest city, which has been in lockdown since mid-August, and two cases in the Waikato region, some 147 km south of Auckland.
The new cases, which are not believed to be connected, come as New Zealand has also announced tighter border restrictions.
"We are introducing the requirement for air travellers aged 17 and over, who are not New Zealand citizens, to be fully vaccinated to enter New Zealand," Covid-19 response minister Christ Hipkins said.
The national flag carrier Air New Zealand also announced it was introducing a "no jab, no fly" policy for passengers on all international flights from 1 February.
The country has been hugely successful at containing the virus - reporting just 27 deaths in a population of five million - thanks to tight border controls and lockdowns, allowing pre-pandemic life to mostly resume.
But the upped border restrictions come as Hamilton city and neighbouring Raglan town were put into the five-day lockdown, with only essential movement permitted, after two people tested positive.
The city of Auckland, home to two million people, has been in lockdown for nearly seven weeks as officials grapple with an outbreak of the highly transmissible Delta variant that has so far infected 1,320 people.
About 2,000 attended an anti-lockdown rally in the city over the weekend, with the country's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern describing the demonstration as "a complete slap in the face" for people who had been abiding by the strict rules banning public gatherings.
"It was illegal and also it was morally wrong," she said.
New Zealand is pursuing a "Covid zero" elimination strategy.
It had been free of community transmission for six months before the latest Auckland outbreak.
