The move to lower alert levels at midnight has been welcomed, as three new community cases with a direct link to earlier cases are identified.

Two top New Zealand scientists are among members of a new international panel mapping future Covid-19 scenarios.

Auckland and wider New Zealand will drop one level each - to levels 2 and 1 respectively - from midnight tonight, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced.

Covid-19 alert levels are going down at midnight but some upcoming events are still unlikely to go ahead or have been postponed.

The strategy acknowledges more work needs to be done to manage iconic sites under pressure, but doesn't spell out what it will implement.

A man attacked outside Wellington's Te Papa on Saturday night has died in hospital, and the inquiry has been upgraded to a homicide investigation.

Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says contact tracing shows the two new community cases did come from the daughter in the Case A family.

An Auckland surfer has been rescued from a remote beach after writing the word "help" in the sand in huge letters.

Health officials believe they will not be able to persuade about 10 percent of the population to get a Covid-19 vaccine.

One of three people who today tested positive for Covid-19 worked at the Cavendish Drive McDonald's in South Auckland but was asymptomatic at the time. Read back through updates for 17 February here.

Police were called to the Heyward Point area shortly after 12.30pm.

Dunedin's King's High School has backed down in its dispute with a student over his hairstyle.

Twelve Land Search and Rescue volunteers are searching for a missing Invercargill man.

The agency said recovery workers reached the roof fall yesterday, which is 2.26km up the mine drift access tunnel.

Greenhouse gas emissions rebounded in the three months following last year's lockdown from the end of March to the beginning of June.

Newstalk ZB broadcaster Marcus Lush has been elected to the Invercargill City Council after receiving more than half of the votes already counted in the by-election.

There are two cases of Covid-19 in the community reported in New Zealand today, and one in managed isolation and quarantine facilities.

Luna Rossa are pushing for racing in the America's Cup Challenger Selection Series to resume on Thursday regardless of the which alert level Auckland is at.