Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is set to announce if Cabinet has agreed to loosen restrictions for Auckland and upper Northland.
She will be joined at the media briefing by Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield.
Ardern says last week's in principle decision to move Auckland to alert level 3, step 2, has been confirmed by Cabinet. The city will move to the new step from 11.59pm tomorrow.
Retail businesses and malls can be open, but event facilities like movie theatres and gyms remain closed for now.
Outdoor gathering limits increase to 25 people and the two-household restriction is removed.
Public facilities like libraries, museums and zoos can also reopen.
Ardern says increasingly high vaccination rates in Auckland is a substantial part of the decision today.
Ardern told Morning Report there was more information available to Cabinet now than in the early part of the pandemic and factors such as vaccination rates would be taken into consideration.
"Previously we haven't been able to factor in things like vaccination rate... We have particularly high vaccination rates in Auckland and that is part of our consideration now."
She also acknowledged that compliance with strict restrictions over time.
However, Maori health leader Dr Rawiri Jansen is worried that easing restrictions would see cases rise rapidly and put Maori in harm's way.
Auckland's Maori population at 79 percent first dose and 63 percent fully vaccinated was "definitely not enough to loosen restrictions", he said.
Meanwhile, by late last week one in five people in Northland was still unvaccinated and the region is near the bottom of the charts for vaccination rates.
Of the 190 community cases announced today, one was in Northland.