The Government has extended the current COVID-19 restrictions for 12 more days but an expert wants alert level 2 stretched even further.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is erring on the side of caution, telling New Zealanders on Friday Auckland will remain under alert level 2.5 restrictions while the rest of the country stays at level 2, until a review on September 14.
"A cautious approach is the best long-term strategy," Ardern said, repeating the word "cautious" and "caution" throughout her press conference.
"We are again on the most perilous part of our alert level journey - the descent. Greater freedoms are within reach, but the gains made can still be squandered if we don't follow the rules and play it safe."
The descent has been paused. There will be no shift down alert levels for Auckland or anyone.
"Lockdown must always be a last resort. We do not want Auckland or indeed the rest of the country to be pinging in and out of level 3," Ardern said.
Cabinet's decision will be reviewed in 10 days with a possible ping down a couple of days later.
National Party leader Judith Collins is optimistic.
"Hopefully we'll be able to move out of these level lockdowns - yo-yoing in and out of them - much quicker than we might suspect," she said on Friday.
But last time New Zealand shifted to level 1we had stayed in level 2 for nearly a month.
Newshub asked the Prime Minister if the country should be preparing to potentially have the restrictions extended for another two weeks beyond the review date.
"Not necessarily," she said. "You know, our view very much was as a Cabinet that it is just not the time for Auckland to see any changes there."
Otago University Professor Michael Baker, an epidemiologist, says we shouldn't shift until we've extinguished the outbreak and any cases outside the cluster.
"We need, I think, four weeks before we know if there are more of those branches we haven't detected, and there probably will be," he told Newshub.
The risk with restrictions is lockdown fatigue.
"It is completely natural that people will feel weary, so we have to do what we can to make it as easy as possible to comply," Ardern said.
Kiwis may be weary and fed up but they are also learning to live with it.
"I'm just learning to live with it," one man told Newshub.
But another said she couldn't wait to get to level 1 again.
One woman Newshub spoke to reflected on how the restrictions have affected her, including how she was unable to attend a funeral.
Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield says our impressive mask uptake and NZ COVID Tracer app use shows we haven't hit a wall yet.
"To me that shows that most people are very aware of and engaged with what they need to do, not just now, but that these are things we're going to need to keep up for a period of time," he said.
The Prime Minister says Kiwis have seen their efforts pay off.
"It takes hard slog and a big effort but they do see the benefit. They see restrictions lift and they see life resuming."
