Leaving Auckland at Alert Level 3 for a few more days has got the thumbs up from covid modeller Shaun Hendy who's convinced moving earlier would have seen more clusters of the disease.
The city will have to wait until Monday now to move into Alert Level 2.
There are now 101 community cases of infection - with three others still being investigated to find out the source.
Professor Hendy told RNZ Health Correspondent Rowan Quinn the country is still learning how difficult the virus is to manage.
