As Auckland, Northland and Waikato brace for another COVID-19 alert level decision, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has ruled out setting specific targets - but there are certain things she's looking for.
"The message for Aucklanders: We will take into consideration two things," Ardern told The AM Show on Monday ahead of the 4pm Cabinet decision announcement at the Beehive.
"Vaccination rates - we already know that they are making a difference, they've reduced this outbreak by up to 50 percent, according to some modelling. The higher we go, the greater impact it will have on the outbreak and our ability to keep stamping it out.
"The second thing we'll take into account is the outbreak itself, the numbers that we see, and our ability to continue to control it.
"We've still taken the same approach today that we took on day one - we aggressively contact trace, we aggressively try and manage, and we aggressively try and associate every single [case].
"But if we see, for instance, restrictions not being complied with or followed, and we see an increase in cases, that makes it very, very difficult for us to continue to be aggressive, which is why we need both at the moment and we need everyone's help."
So, there you have it. Cabinet will consider vaccination rates, the number of new cases and if they could be clearly linked to the outbreak - and whether the alert level 3 restrictions have been complied with.
But Ardern wouldn't say how high vaccination rates need to be to lift restrictions across the three locked-down regions, nor how many new cases would be acceptable to allow some more freedoms for Aucklanders.
"In the many conversations I've had with other countries who have used targets, they have all said to me, 'Don't use targets,' and one of the reasons is because they've found that when they reached those places, they haven't necessarily been in the right place in order to remove, or you know, who knows, there may be circumstances in which we could move earlier."
Remember, last week Ardern unveiled a roadmap for Auckland to roll back restrictions while it's under alert level 3. Step 1 allowed two household bubbles to mingle outdoors and step 2 will bring back retail. The step changes do not apply to Northland or Waikato.
Ardern told The AM Show while she wanted to see a vaccination rate of more than 90 percent for Auckland, it doesn't mean step 2 is out of reach.
"We have said we want to reach 90+ but I haven't said that's where we need to be in order to make small easements, like for instance that phase 2 which is retail, because actually, we might be in a position to move earlier than that.
"That's what we're continuing to consider as we go, but I still encourage everyone: we need those high rates so please keep going out. It's 4 percent we need to hit Auckland at first doses at 90 percent, so just keep it up."
The vaccination rate in Auckland is looking promising, with 86 percent of people with one dose and 61 percent fully vaccinated. But with 60 new cases registered on Sunday, 56 of them in Auckland, experts warn it's too soon to ease restrictions.
As for Northland, no more cases have yet been identified there. The region was locked down on Saturday as a precaution after a woman used fraudulent documents to travel there from Auckland, and she has not been cooperating with authorities.
The case was under investigation after returning a weak positive result from a test in Whāngarei last week and on Friday returned a positive test result in Auckland. She remains in an Auckland quarantine facility, and the other woman who she is thought to have travelled with has been contacted but not yet located.
The latest Ministry of Health data shows 77,274 people in Northland are fully vaccinated out of an eligible 164,526 people, representing about 46 percent.
"Given our low vaccination rates it is imperative that we stop any potential spread of COVID-19 in its tracks," Northland DHB acting chief executive Jeanette Wedding said as the region went into lockdown at the weekend.
In Waikato, where three of Sunday's new cases were recorded, the latest update from Waikato DHB on Monday shows 53.2 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, while 76 percent have had at least one dose.
There have been no unexpected detections of COVID-19 in wastewater, which is promising for the rest of the country - and general testing remains relatively high, with more than 20,000 swabs taken on Saturday, the latest data shows.
But there were still 49 unlinked cases on Sunday from the past 14 days, and more than 20 percent of the more than 2000 case contacts were still to be followed up with and get tested.
