Timaru, City in the South Island, New Zealand

Auckland, Aug 24 The Covid-19 restrictions in New Zealand's largest city of Auckland will continue at the current Alert Level 3 until Sunday night, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Monday.The rest of the country other than Auckland will remain at Alert Level 2, Ardern said while announcing the government decision after a Cabinet meeting.Previous decisions required Auckland to remain in Alert Level 3 until Wednesday with the rest of the country staying in Alert Level 2 with relaxed restrictions, Xinhua news agency reported.Under level 3, businesses are required to implement Covid-19 safety measures, but most people are encouraged to work from home.Ministers met on Monday to review whether community transmission has been contained in Auckland.An Auckland family cluster was identified two weeks ago as New Zealand's second wave of Covid-19 transmission started.Ardern acknowledged "the cost to business, the cost to the Auckland economy" under the higher level of restrictions, while stressing risks of people leaving and entering Auckland under the lower Alert Level 2."It's a finely balanced decision, but the right one, I believe."We may not have any choice about whether or not the world is in a global pandemic but we do have choices about how we deal with it," she said.Ardern also announced the decision to make masks mandatory on public transport at Alert Level 2 and above, which will take effect from Monday.According to the rule, public transport includes planes, buses, taxis and rideshare services like Uber, but children are not required to wear masks."This is a commonsense approach to protect everyone's health," she said.New Zealand reported eight new cases on Monday, taking the total to1,332.One confirmed case is an imported one reported from a managed isolation facility in Auckland.The remaining cases are all linked to the Auckland cluster, according to a Halth Ministry statement.The total number of active cases in New Zealand is 123, it added. ( With inputs from IANS )Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor

TimaruFOLLOW

Timaru, Latest News

New Zealand women's skipper Sophie Devine has said that it would be nice that the side would be getting extra preparation time for the upcoming series against Australia. ...

Geneva, Sep 8 The Review Committee of the International Health Regulations (IHR) will begin its work on Tuesday to ... ...

Film director Taika Watiti is quarantining in a hotel room in New Zealand with his two daughters, and he recently shared a glance of time spent with his little ones and the messy room. ...

New Delhi, Sep 4 While international travel still seems to be afar, how about some music which can transport ... ...

Wellington, Aug 31 The New Zealand Stock Exchange (NZX) said on Monday that its website collapsed due to ... ...

Dubai, Aug 30 Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Indian captain Virat Kohli said his first training session ahead ... ...

Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Keshav Prasad Maurya on Friday announced that a road will be named after late cabinet minister and Indian cricketer Chetan Chauhan so that the present and future generations remember him. ...

Auckland, Aug 24 The Covid-19 restrictions in New Zealand's largest city of Auckland will continue at the current Alert ... ...