Wellington, Sep 15 (IANS): New Zealand reported 14 new community cases of Delta variant of Covid-19 on Wednesday, all in the largest city Auckland, which brought the total number of cases in the country's community outbreak to 983.

Of the current community cases, 20 cases are in hospital, including four cases in intensive care units (ICUs) or high dependency units (HDUs), Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield told a press conference.

Auckland has 966 community cases and the capital Wellington has 17 cases, Bloomfield said.

There are 947 cases that have been clearly epidemiologically-linked to another case or sub-cluster, and a further eight cases for which links are yet to be fully established, he said.

According to the Ministry of Health, New Zealand also reported three historical cases in recent returnees. These cases have remained in managed isolation and quarantine facilities in Christchurch, the Xinhua news agency reported.

The total number of confirmed cases in New Zealand since the start of the pandemic is 3,981, Bloomfield said.

Areas outside Auckland moved to Alert Level 2 from 11:59 p.m. local time on Sep 7, which means businesses and schools are back to normal, with masks mandatory in certain settings and gatherings limited to 50 people in size.

Auckland currently remains at Level 4, the top-level Covid-19 lockdown, for another week.