The New Zealand Prime Minister has been commended for her country’s handling of the pandemic, seeing only 1,499 cases and 21 deaths.

She was turned away from a cafe in Wellington which had reached its capacity to seat people due to social distancing measures.

A Twitter user called Joey claimed on Saturday: “Jacinda Ardern just tried to come into Olive and was rejected cause it’s full.”

Her partner, Clarke Gayford, confirmed the story on Twitter, writing: “I have to take responsibility for this, I didn’t get organised and book anywhere.

“Was very nice of them to chase us down the street when a spot freed up.

“A+ service.”

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New Zealand began easing its lockdown restrictions on Thursday after its success in containing the pandemic.

Gathering remain limited, and social distancing guidelines remain in place under level two restrictions.

Level two is part of the government’s “Alert System,” with level four seeing the most restrictive measures in place.

Level two allows for businesses to reopen safely, travel between regions and socialise with friends and family in groups of up to 10.

But despite the success in low infections, the country is facing it’s most challenging economic conditions since the Great Depression.

Ms Ardern spoke when releasing the budget on Thursday about the challenges.

She said: “New Zealand is about to enter a very tough winter.

“But every winter eventually is followed by spring, and if we make the right choices we can get New Zealanders back to work and our economy moving quickly again.”

The country saw one new cast of COVID-19 on Sunday.

It was a preschool aged child from Canterbury.

The case is linked to Christchurch’s Rosewood rest home cluster as a household contact of an earlier case.

Information released on the Ministry of Health’s website shows the person is a boy aged between one and four.