The Covid response Minister Chris Hipkins says covid case numbers in Waikato were encouraging ahead of Cabinet considering today whether to drop that region and Northland back to alert level two.

But in Auckland there are now signs that the R0 of the delta variant is around 1.3, meaning cases could double every fortnight.

Māni Dunlop speaks to Te Pūnaha Matatini principal investigator and Auckland University physics lecturer Dion O'Neale