With so few cases in total, the Tairāwhiti region (East Coast or Gisborne region) wants to make its own coronavirus bubble so it can move to Alert Level 2 as soon as possible.
In New Zealand there are four regions with fewer than 10 cases of Covid-19. They are: Whanganui with nine, Wairarapa with eight, the West Coast with five and Tairāwhiti with four. All of Tairāwhiti's cases were returning travellers.
Mayor of Tairāwhiti's biggest city, Gisborne, Rehette Stoltz has written a letter to the Prime Minister, desperate to get the region back up and running.
Ms Stoltz believes it is possible for the geographically isolated region to keep its borders closed with patrols at State Highway 2 and State Highway 35.
Speaking today to TVNZ 1's Breakfast she said: "I respect the levels that the Government have set, but we would really ask the Prime Minister and the Government to take a look at the regions like us and if possible, if we can move safely into Level 2 we would love to do that to form our own Tairāwhiti bubble."
Ms Stoltz said the community is proud of what iwi-led community patrols have done so far, and said it could be something like that to control a move to Level 2.
There was extensive community testing in the region last week, with mobile units going up the coast.
"Our health officials are confident to say we do not have community spread in the Tairāwhiti."
Later on Breakfast though, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said forestry, construction and roading projects will come back to life in the region under Level 3.
"What they're specifically probably speaking to are things like retail and hospitality and I know there's been huge creativity coming out of Tairāwhiti to support that.
"But I'd also be interested in whether or not all of her population want to be in a different category because I think generally there's been support for us moving cautiously, being careful because we have seen movement of cases between regions and so that's something I'm very mindful of."
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