By Contributor - March 1, 2021 Level 3 restrictions for the 1.7 million residents of New Zealandâs largest city will last until Sunday. Aucklandâs CBD at dusk. (Photo: Partha Narasimhan/Unsplash) Auckland was plunged into a seven-day Level 3 lockdown at 6 a.m. yesterday morning, marking the second time those restrictions were imposed within a month. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the measure late Saturday, calling it an âunfortunate, but necessary position of needing to protect Aucklanders once againâ after health authorities reported an unlinked case of Covid-19 in the community. The asymptomatic 21-year-old student had been in several public spaces while infectious over the course of a week; Ardern expressed âfrustrationâ that he went to the gym instead of isolating at home after getting tested for the virus. Subsequent genome sequencing revealed he had the more transmissible U.K. variant, and contact tracers have established a clear link between the latest case and infected families in the South Auckland suburb of Papatoetoe, taking the existing cluster there to 13.