The Ministry of Health's backing its COVID-19 testing capacity.

Cabinet ministers will today work through what needs to happen for the nationwide lockdown to end in 16 days.

Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield told Mike Hosking so far, more than 36,000 tests have been completed.

He says the ministry's not testing at capacity to ensure we have more tests than we need.

"Ensuring that that's available not just for testing people with symptoms, and we're doing a lot of that, but if we need to use that as part of our surveillance program." 

He says it's too early to say if the number of cases will decrease, but Bloomfield says it's what the Ministry of Health and the Government are looking for.

"We will be watching very closely over the next two or three days to see, and our hope is not only to see that flattening off but we also start seeing that drop in the number of additional cases." 

He also confirmed that cancer patients who need care and treatment can still receive that. Bloomfield says hospitals are operating at just over 50 percent capacity - putting New Zealand in a good place to fight the virus.

"What we were wanting to do during Alert Level 4 is get out hospitals ready, and they are ready, and get our ICU staff trained."