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Auckland heading out of lockdown, rest of NZ to level 1

Author
NZ Herald,
Publish Date
Fri, 5 Mar 2021, 3:49PM

Auckland heading out of lockdown, rest of NZ to level 1

Author
NZ Herald,
Publish Date
Fri, 5 Mar 2021, 3:49PM

Auckland will go out of lockdown and drop to level 2 from Sunday.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced the change after five days of no cases of community transmission. The rest of the country will move to level one.

Ardern says she spoke to French president Emmanuel Macron this morning, and the Covid-19 response came up.

"Covid has taken a toll on so many in so many ways but it will get better," Ardern said.

She indicated in the coming weeks she would lay out the Government's plan for the Covid response for the rest of 2021.

Auckland will move to level 2 at 6am Sunday and is likely to remain there for a week when Cabinet will review whether to move to level 1 at the start of the following weekend. The rest of the country will move to level 1 from 6am this Sunday.

There had been no new cases for 5 days in a row which was "good news," Ardern said.

"It is still not business as usual" the PM added, urging people to keep social distancing.

Ardren said they were treating more people as close contacts in this latest cluster due to the more infectious UK strain.

Over 50,000 tests have been taken, mostly in Auckland, in relation to this last Valentines Day cluster.

The restriction of 100 people will still be applied to church services in Auckland at level 2, the PM.

"An elimination strategy can still feel like hard work... thank you for pushing through, Ardern said.

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