A man rides a bike on the street in Wellington, New Zealand, Sept. 22, 2020. New Zealand reported no new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday as the country embraced the first day of relaxed restrictions, or Alert Level 1, except Auckland, the largest city. (Xinhua/Guo Lei)
WELLINGTON, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand reported no new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday as the country embraced the first day of relaxed restrictions, or Alert Level 1, except Auckland, the largest city.
Auckland will ease restrictions on gatherings at midnight Wednesday, moving down from COVID-19 Alert Level 2.5 to 2, with the rest of the country moving down from Alert Level 2 to Level 1 from midnight Monday.
Auckland saw a second wave of COVID-19 community outbreak in August, with transmissions contained locally. Therefore, Auckland has maintained a higher alert level than the rest of New Zealand.
Auckland's Alert Level 2 means that gathering restrictions will increase from 10 to 100 people. At Alert Level 1, people need to be ready in case COVID-19 reappears. The new levels will be in place for 14 days before new decisions are made on Oct. 5.
There are currently 39 people isolating in the Auckland quarantine facility from the community, which includes 18 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and their household contacts, according to the Ministry of Health.
Three people are in hospital with COVID-19, none in ICU.
The total number of active cases in New Zealand is 61; of those, 29 are imported cases in managed isolation facilities, and 32 are community cases, said a ministry statement.
New Zealand's total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 remains at 1,464, with a total of 25 related deaths, it said.
