The Ministry of Health on Sunday reported one new case of COVID-19 community transmission and two at the border.
The single case in the community has been linked to the existing known Auckland cluster, and was recorded in the Auckland DHB area.
The two at the border are a a woman in her 20s who arrived in New Zealand on August 16 from Croatia via Switzerland and Hong Kong, who has been staying at the Sudima in Rotorua; and a person in their 30s who has been in isolation at the Grand Millennium in Auckland and tested positive around day 12 of their stay.
"The total number of active cases in New Zealand is 114, of which 18 are imported cases from managed isolation facilities," the ministry said in a statement.
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"There are 151 people linked to the cluster who have been moved into the Auckland quarantine facility. This includes 82 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and their household contacts."
So far 2219 out of 2308 known close contacts have been reached and put into self-isolation.
Nine people remain in hospital, three in ICU at Middlemore. The rest are at Middlemore, North Shore Hospital and Waikato Hospital.
"All of the cases who are in hospital are isolated and carefully managed separately from other patients."
Border rules relaxed
The Ministry of Health also said from Sunday, people crossing the border from Auckland - under alert level 3 - and the rest of the country don't need an exemption any more.
"People can now transit through Auckland without stopping in order to travel for work. They must show evidence of the purpose of their travel and their departure point and destination, but an exemption is no longer required."
Hope for end to level 3 in Auckland
Sunday's numbers will please University of Otago epidemiologist Michael Baker, who doesn't think the lockdown will end until several days of just one or no cases.
"We do have to wait to see if the downward trend is really sustained," he told Magic Talk's Road to the Election show on Sunday.
"It is tracking down, but I think we'd want to see a few days where we have really consistently under five cases maybe - ideally some days with no cases or one case, just so we're really comfortable with that. The difficulty is there may be some branches of this cluster which haven't declared themselves yet."
