Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern wants Aucklanders to be treated with "the thanks and the care that they do deserve" as the city comes out of lockdown and enters COVID-19 alert level 2.5.
Aucklanders woke up on Monday to what the Prime Minister described on Sunday as level 2.5 where businesses and schools can reopen to the public again but gatherings are limited to 10 people and masks are recommended in public.
The Prime Minister acknowledged on Monday that it will be "very difficult" for authorities to enforce the 10-people rule but she said it's "all part of our ongoing protections" as lockdown lifts despite 107 active cases in the community.
"There have been some who have thought that we should perhaps stay in heightened restrictions until we reach zero. It will take some time for that to be the case," Ardern told reporters in Auckland.
"We have a plan that we know will work. We just need everyone's compliance and help. If everyone sticks to those guidelines and rules, couple together with all the health measures that we have, we can make this work."
She said Aucklanders deserve respect as they come out of lockdown.
"We are still a team here. I think everyone recognises that Auckland has been going through a particularly tough period. What I'd like to ask again is what we've asked all the way through: a bit of kindness, a bit of smiling with the eyes behind the mask," she said.
"Remember that Aucklanders have been bearing the brunt of this latest wave and just to treat them with the thanks and the care that they do deserve while we all continue to get through this together."
Ardern was asked if it's likely COVID-19 could spread beyond Auckland but she could not say because she had not been shown modelling that would suggest it.
"I haven't seen modelling specific to the scenario that we have at the moment. I think it would be fair to say it's very difficult to model with even single clusters and that's been one of the key learnings for us from cluster management," she said.
"But you'll remember the reason we kept New Zealand at level 2 was so that we could continue to have that precautionary approach. We have had cases outside of Auckland and to date we have been able to manage them properly through our public health measures."
She wouldn't rule out Auckland staying at level 2 while the rest of the country moves to level 1.
"I wouldn't rule out any variations. But at this stage we are being very cautious around the rest of the country as well which is why they are under at level 2 arrangements."
Ardern said New Zealanders "are not alone in that everyone feels a bit tired".
"We've been going through this experience now since the end of February and so it's natural that we feel tired. The whole world is," she said. "But relative to others we're doing really well. We will be able to get back in front of the virus if we all follow the guidelines."
Ardern apologised for the public health directive published over the weekend on official Unite Against COVID-19 social media pages telling people in west and south Auckland to get a COVID-19 test.
"It was incorrect... This could have caused anxiety for some people and I'm sorry for that," she said.
The Government is only asking those who have cold or flu symptoms, or people who have been in contact with a COVID-19 case, to get tested.
Ardern also responded to the latest ANZ business confidence survey which has found that business confidence has largely held up but responses from Auckland were generally more pessimistic than those from the rest of the country.
"Unsurprisingly, there was a hefty impact on current levels of both activity and employment compared to the same month a year earlier. But Auckland firms are broadly more downbeat compared to their peers elsewhere," said ANZ chief economist Sharon Zollner.
Ardern said it is "completely natural" for businesses to experience low confidence during a global pandemic that is "causing disruption" everywhere.
"That is almost a given in this current international environment," she said. "What we're very clear on is the best economic response we can have is continued to have a really strong health response."
