Photo taken on Sept. 24, 2020 shows cars passing by the Sky Tower in Auckland, New Zealand. Auckland eased restrictions on gatherings, moving down from COVID-19 Alert Level 2.5 to 2, which means that gathering restrictions will be loosened from 10 to 100 people. (Photo by Wilson/Xinhua)
WELLINGTON, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand reported three new cases of COVID-19 as Auckland, the country's largest city, embraced the first day of relaxed restrictions on Thursday.
Auckland eased restrictions on gatherings, moving down from COVID-19 Alert Level 2.5 to 2, which means that gathering restrictions will be loosened from 10 to 100 people.
Other parts of the country relaxed restrictions and moved down to Alert Level 1 at midnight Monday. At 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.
Thursday's cases were detected in recent returnees in managed isolation facilities. There are no new community cases, according to the Ministry of Health.
The three new cases are all separate returnees who arrived on different flights from the United States on Sept. 18; from London via Dubai on Sept. 16 and from Croatia via Frankfurt and Dubai on Sept. 18. Two are in quarantine in Auckland; the third case is in quarantine in Rotorua, said a ministry statement.
There are 32 people isolating in the Auckland quarantine facility from the community, which includes 15 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and their household contacts, it said.
Three people are in hospital with COVID-19, none in ICU.
New Zealand's current number of active cases is 65; of those, 31 are imported cases in managed isolation facilities and 34 are community cases, according to the ministry.
The country's total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 is 1,471, with a total of 25 related deaths, it said. Enditem
