On Saturday, 27 February, a new case emerged which could not be immediately linked to the previous cases in the Auckland February cluster. We found ourselves in a position that was fairly clear-cut: there was no immediate link for the new case, and, even if there had been, a large number of exposure events associated with the latest case posed a significant risk of spread. This led Ministers to take the cautious approach which has served New Zealand so well through the pandemic and move Auckland to alert level 3 and the rest of New Zealand to alert level 2. Over the past week, our systems have once again been put to the test. I'm pleased to say that they have demonstrated their overall strength. 