The Government will review Auckland’s settings on 21 September, with a view to increasing gathering limits.

Until then, Auckland remains at ‘Alert Level 2.5’ and the rest of New Zealand remains at Alert Level 2. 

The Government has indicated the rest of New Zealand would move to Alert Level 1 on 21 September, if the cluster of cases in Auckland remains contained.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the cautious approach New Zealand has followed, and continues to follow, has both saved lives, and meant our economy has been able to be more open in a more sustained way than nearly any other country in the world.

 Distancing restrictions on public transport have been eased

From today, public transport operators including airlines, buses, and trains are no longer being asked to maintain any seating restrictions or passenger capacity limits at Alert Level 2.

Mask use will continue to be compulsory.

Passengers are asked to be patient as transport operators make the change.

The easing of physical distancing will be helpful for Air New Zealand and parts of the country that would like to have increased numbers of visitors.

COVID-19 case update

There is one new community case of COVID-19 to report today. 

The case is a female child who has been in isolation since August 30 as a household contact of a confirmed case.

The case of the healthcare worker from the Auckland quarantine facility who was reported yesterday has been linked to three cases that have been in the quarantine facility.

There are 53 people linked to the community cluster who remain in the Auckland quarantine facility.  

Since August 11, the Ministry of Health’s contact tracing team has identified 3,708 close contacts of cases, of which 3,697 have been contacted and are self-isolating, and the rest are in the process of being contacted.

With today’s new case and two additional recovered cases, the total number of active cases is 96. 

Of those, 39 are imported cases in managed isolation and quarantine facilities, and 57 are community cases.