Possible vaccine stock shortages are also looming as an area of concern.
The South will revert to Alert Level 3 at 11.59pm today and its stay at that level might be for only a week, Ms Ardern confirmed yesterday.
However, her confirmation Cabinet had agreed to lower the pandemic alert level came with a caveat: "Alert Level 3 does not mean freedom; it means caution."
The easing of restrictions for all of New Zealand except Northland and Auckland follows a dip in new community cases to 53, all recorded in Auckland.
Cabinet deemed the numbers merited the already signalled decision to keep Auckland at Level 4 for another fortnight.
It marked a large drop from the 83 cases announced on Sunday and the 82 cases on Saturday.
Ms Ardern said yesterday it was too soon to say whether New Zealand had passed its peak for infections during this outbreak.
"I am not making any judgements from today’s numbers.
"I will look at tomorrow’s, I will look at the next day’s and we will see what trend emerges."
Assuming no cases of community transmission were recorded other than in Auckland in ensuing days, Cabinet would consider a further reduction in the alert level for the rest of the country next Monday.
The number of people in the South classed as close contacts with the Auckland cluster has fallen dramatically, from 120 on Friday to 30 yesterday.
Southern District Health Board medical officer of health Michael Butchard said most southern close contacts had finished their 14-day isolation period following their possible exposure to Covid-19.
However, some businesses have decided to wait until Level 2.
Vaccination continued apace in the South yesterday, as a two-day mega-clinic targeting students began at Forsyth Barr Stadium.
So far, just under 60% of all eligible people in the SDHB region have had at least one dose of the vaccine, and 28.7% are fully vaccinated.
Ms Ardern said yesterday health officials had planned to be dispensing about 350,000 vaccinations per week by now, but that was being outstripped by current demand for 500,000 doses a week.
About 840,000 doses of vaccine were in New Zealand now, and weekly deliveries were arriving as scheduled, she said.
However, Ms Ardern admitted the Government might need to slow the vaccine rollout down to levels being planned before the current outbreak if it could not secure more supplies.
Act New Zealand leader David Seymour said Ms Ardern’s statement there were 840,000 doses of vaccine did not accord with other public statements or information on the Ministry of Health website.
Someone had their figures wrong and Ms Ardern needed to explain just how much vaccine New Zealand had left, he said.
On Sunday and again yesterday, Ms Ardern said she would give a briefing on vaccine stocks later this week.
