ANALYSIS: One new case was enough to force Auckland back into lockdown less than a week after it returned to Level 1. That latest outbreak was seen as a "false alarm" by some and Auckland left Level 3 just days after the lockdown began. Why, then, did the identification of a single new community case, likely linked to the Valentine's Day cluster, necessitate a return to Level 3? University of Auckland Siouxsie Wiles asked the day before Auckland left lockdown. Evaluation of the Level 3 lockdown in Auckland in August found that the reproduction number - the average number of people a given case infects - was reduced to 0.7.

Source: Stuff February 27, 2021 20:26 UTC