AAP: Three new community cases of Covid-19 this weekend will be awarded to Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, Food for thought as she contemplates deregulation New Zealand on Monday.

The new cases are not related to the Auckland group, which saw Ardern lock down, New Zealand’s largest city, last month. Instead, health authorities say they are three people from the same home as a man who recently returned to New Zealand but passed quarantine without a positive result.

The man traveled from India to New Zealand on August 27 and completed his mandatory isolation in Christchurch before returning to his home in Auckland.

When symptoms appeared, he was tested, and when a positive result was returned, his family members were isolated and tested – to capture the other two positive results.

It remains to be seen whether the outbreak will spark a new group.

Health authorities have two practical theories about how the man brought the virus into society despite his two-week isolation.

The first theory is that Covid was caught abroad or on its international trip, had an incubation period higher than usual, and symptoms appeared three weeks later. Symptoms after more than 2 weeks are rare.

The second theory is that he was injured during his flight from Canterbury to Oakland after completing his isolation. This caused contact trackers to contact all passengers on the Air New Zealand flight.

Contact with the present Oakland group was excluded by genetic testing.

The concept of the new block will be a primary concern of Ardern as she studies alert level settings in New Zealand.

Auckland residents of 1.6 million have experienced a 16-day lockdown after cases last month, but are now on a second alert level – like the rest of New Zealand – with smaller lock sizes for gatherings.

Ardern pledged last week to lower the maximum limits sizes for Auckland to get rid of all restrictions for the rest of New Zealand if “cases are tracked as is, and the containment we have seen” is maintained.

The Oakland case numbers seem to set that square, given four community cases in the past week, compared to 18 the previous week.

Outside of Auckland, no cases have been found for months – except for a handful in Tokorua with established links to Auckland companies.

Tokorua cases have also resulted in two out of three deaths from Covid-19 this month, bringing the total number of deaths in New Zealand to 25.

New Zealand Cabinet is meeting on Monday morning to decide before Ardern announces the decision at a press conference at 1pm New Zealand time.