Today, Cabinet will meet to decide whether to change the current alert level settings of Level 3 in Auckland and Level 2 for the rest of the country.
Those settings are in place until 11.59pm on Wednesday.
The increase in alert levels, which occurred after community transmission re-emerged in Auckland, has been another challenge for hospitality businesses already struggling.
Dunedin’s Craft Bar and Kitchen owner John MacDonald said uncertainty over alert levels and the future impacts of the pandemic made planning and staffing difficult.
"The last couple of weeks have been challenging," he said.
The biggest issue for his business was the limit of 100 people.
A lack of events also meant fewer people were venturing out in the evenings, which also had a flow-on effect, he said.
A Level 1.5 has been floated by director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield, in which some restrictions would be lifted but measures such as mask wearing, signing in at places and social distancing would be recommended.
Mr MacDonald believed that could be the "new normal".
Among the factors to be considered by Cabinet today are the number of new cases, whether they can be linked to the South Auckland cluster, and how the contact-tracing system has been performing.
Ministers will also consider the advice of Dr Bloomfield.
Six new cases were announced on Saturday, and three yesterday.
Of those, five were in the community and two were in managed isolation facilities.
Two were being investigated.
There are 2308 close contacts identified related to the current outbreak, of whom 2219 have been contacted and are self-isolating. The remaining people were still being contacted.
There were nine people in hospital, six people stable on a ward, and three in ICU.
On Saturday 7005 tests processed, meaning about 190,000 tests have been conducted since the outbreak was detected.
— Additional reporting The New Zealand Herald
