New Zealand reports 11 new virus cases, mostly local

New Zealand reported 11 new coronavirus cases on Friday, including nine related to the community outbreak in the country's largest city of Auckland, health officials said.

The Ministry of Health's Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told reporters five of the community cases were linked to different churches in Auckland, while the other four were household contacts.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Auckland's Level 3 restrictions were playing a critical role in the country's progress in dealing with the recent outbreak.

Ardern revealed her Cabinet will consider the restriction levels for Auckland and for the rest of the county on Monday.

She also said New Zealand remains among a small number of countries that still have a low number of case and death rate, unlike the United States.

"To give you just one example, the United States has 16,563 cases per million people. We have 269 cases per million people," Ardern said.

On Thursday, Ardern visited the Institute of Environmental Science and Research in Porirua where scientists have been mapping coronavirus genomes.