Wellington, Sep 22 (IANS): No new Covid-19 cases were reported in New Zealand on Tuesday as the country embraced the first day of relaxed restrictions, or Alert Level 1, except the largest city of Auckland.

Auckland will ease restrictions on gatherings from Wednesday midnight, moving down from Covid-19 Alert Level 2.5 to 2, while the rest of the country moved from Alert Level 2 to 1 on Monday midnight, reports Xinhua news agency.

Auckland witnessed a second wave of a community coronavirus outbreak in August, with transmissions contained locally.

Therefore, Auckland has maintained a higher alert level than the rest of New Zealand.

Auckland's Alert Level 2 means that gathering restrictions will increase from 10 to 100 people.

At Alert 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 October 5.

There are currently 39 people isolating in the Auckland quarantine facility from the community, which includes 18 people who have tested positive for Covid-19 and their household contacts, according to the Ministry of Health.

The total number of active cases in New Zealand is 61; of those, 29 are imported cases in managed isolation facilities, and 32 are community cases.

New Zealand's total number of confirmed casesremains at 1,464, with a total of 25 deaths, it added.