New Zealand moves to Covid-19 Alert Level 1: PM Jacinda Ardern

“With care and commitment our team of 5 million has united to protect New Zealanders’ health and ensure we now have a head-start on our economic recovery,” Jacinda Ardern said.

New Zealand will move to Covid-19 Alert Level 1 at 11:59 pm on Monday 8 June, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced.

There are no active cases in the country, almost 40,000 tests in the past 17 days have turned up no positive results and it's been 40 days since the last case of community transmission – and 22 days since that person finished self-isolation.

"With care and commitment our team of 5 million has united to protect New Zealanders' health and ensure we now have a head-start on our economic recovery," Jacinda Ardern said.

"At Level 1 we become one of the most open economies in the world and now we must seize our advantage of going hard and early to beat Covid-19 and use the same focus and determination we applied to our health response to rebuild our economy.

"Caution and hard work got us down the mountain safely when the descent is always the most perilous part. At every step there have been those who've pushed us to do something different, to go faster or further, but our results speak for themselves.

"We are confident we have eliminated the transmission of the virus in New Zealand for now, but elimination is not a point in time – it is a sustained effort.

"The world will remain in the grip of a global pandemic for some time to come and we will see cases here again, which we must remain prepared for," Jacinda Ardern said.

Reserve Bank analysis shows the economy under Level 1 is expected to be operating just 3.8 per cent below normal levels. That's an improvement from 8.8 per cent below normal under Level 2, 19 per cent below normal under Level 3, and 37 per cent under Level 4.

(With Inputs from New Zealand Government Press Release)