On Thursday (Sept 2), New Zealand reported a decrease in new Covid-19 illnesses, which authorities said was a sign that a statewide lockdown was limiting the spread of the infectious Delta version.

Until the Delta-variant epidemic caused Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to order the brief lockdown last month, New Zealand had been relatively free of coronavirus, with the exception of a few instances in February.

In the epicenter of the outbreak, Auckland, authorities reported 49 new cases, down from 75 on Wednesday, bringing the total to 736.

"The latest lower number is encouraging and does show that our alert level 4 lockdown is working, even against Delta," said Ashley Bloomfield, Director-General of Health.

He said that six of the 42 Delta-infected persons in the hospital were in intensive care units and three were on ventilators.

Around two million people in Auckland and the surrounding Northland region are still under stringent level 4 lockdown, while officials have loosened restrictions elsewhere.

"Our case numbers are moving around... that's not unusual," Ms. Ardern said at the press briefing. "The important thing is we are seeing some positive trends."

Ms. Ardern announced that Northland will be downgraded to alert level 3 at midnight, bringing it in line with the rest of the country.

Since March last year, Ms. Ardern's lockdowns and international border closures have been credited with containing Covid-19 and substantially freeing up day-to-day activities. However, the government is facing criticism about a delayed vaccine roll-out as well as mounting costs in a country that relies significantly on immigrants.

Only around a quarter of the country's 5.1 million people have been fully vaccinated, the slowest rate among the OECD's wealthier nations.