Wellington, Sep 24 (IANS): New Zealand reported three new coronavirus cases on Thursday, as Auckland, the country's largest city where a Covid-19 cluster was detected last month, entered the first day of relaxed restrictions.

Auckland moved from Covid-19 Alert Level 2.5 to 2, which means that gatherings of 100 people will be allowed, reports Xinhua news agency

Thursday's cases were detected in recent returnees who were currently in managed isolation facilities, according to the Ministry of Health.

The infected persons arrived on different flights from the US on September 18; from London via Dubai on September 16 and from Croatia via Frankfurt and Dubai on September 18.

New Zealand's current number of active cases is 65; of those, 31 are imported cases in managed isolation facilities and 34 are community cases, the Ministry said.

As of Thursday, the country's total number of confirmed cases stood at 1,471, with a total of 25 deaths.

Meanwhile, other parts of the country relaxed restrictions and moved to Alert Level 1 on Monday midnight.

At 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.