There are 36 new cases of coronavirus in New Zealand, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 102.

Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield updated the number of confirmed cases at a press conference on Monday, the highest one-day bump so far.

While almost all of the cases are either recent arrivals from overseas or have had close contact with travellers two cannot be linked to travel.

This has led to the Ministry treating these two cases in Auckland and the Wairarapa as "community transmission" - the first such cases in New Zealand.

Of the two cases suspected of being community transmission, one - in Auckland - is new, and the other is a case in Wairarapa reported on Sunday.

KEVIN STENT/STUFF Crowds at Wellington's Harbourside Market on Sunday, despite social distancing warnings.

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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern would address NZ's coronavirus threat alert level - currently at Level 2 - on Monday afternoon, Bloomfield said.

He would not say whether or not he had advised Cabinet to raise the level.

At Alert Level 2, people are asked to reduce contact with others. People over 70 years of age or who have pre-existing health conditions are advised to stay home.

ROSS GIBLIN/STUFF Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield.

Just over 1200 tests were carried out on Sunday. A total of 7400 have been carried out overall.

Bloomfield said he expected the number of cases to rise as more and more people overseas in areas with the virus returned home, following government advice to do so.

"I expect that we will continue to see more cases each day. We are doing a lot of testing now," Bloomfield said.

"Most of our cases are still from people who travelled to New Zealand from overseas."

"An increasing number is people who have had close contact with those who have been overseas."

A new Ministry of Health team has been set up to oversee contact tracing, Bloomfield said. It can deal with up to 50 new cases every day and be scaled up if necessary.

The ministry was also completing a stocktake of ICU capacity, which would be publicly released. Bloomfield said he was "encouraged" by the stocktake so far.

There were 14 new cases of coronavirus on Sunday, bringing the total number of cases to 66.

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