New Zealand eases restrictions outside Auckland as Covid cases stabilise

Experts say Covid-19 infection total is encouraging sign we are heading in the right direction'

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New Zealand's regions outside of Auckland will move down lockdown settings to level 2, from midnight Tuesday, prime minister Jacinda Ardern has announced, as a slowdown in daily case numbers indicated the coronavirus outbreak may have peaked.

On 17 August the country was put into a snap nation-wide lockdown following the discovery of one case of the Delta variant in the community. The entire country was in alert level 4 - the highest level - for two weeks, with regions outside Auckland moving down a level last week.