Aucklanders wake up to new freedoms after joining rest of NZ in Alert Level 1

Aucklanders are waking up to new freedoms this morning after New Zealand’s biggest city joined the rest of the country in Covid-19 Alert Level 1 at 11.59pm last night.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the move down alert levels for Auckland yesterday afternoon.

That's despite another household contact of a Papatoetoe High School student testing positive for the virus yesterday, bringing the total for that cluster to eight.

A handful of staff and students are still isolating at home, waiting on test results.

The city will be gearing up for a big weekend, with events such as Round the Bays, the Pride March, and the Joseph Parker-Sonny Fai fight back on or without crowd limitations.

Face masks remain compulsory on all public transport across the whole country.

Auckland moved down from Level 3 to Level 2 late on Wednesday last week, while the rest of the New Zealand moved to Level 1.

On February 14, Ardern announced Auckland would move to Alert Level 3 while the rest of the country to Alert Level 2 from 11.59pm that day, for at least three days.