Infectious disease experts say the Ministry of Health (MoH) isn't providing enough details about the potential for widespread transmission of coronavirus.
They're worried we're getting complacent in alert level 3 and could see restrictions drag on for much longer as a result.
The televised briefings have become a fixture but epidemiologists from the Public Health Expert blog say the MoH is not giving a detailed enough picture, not even on its website.
"Given how important every single case is now we think they can be divided up into a way that gives all of us a lot more information," says Professor Michael Baker, from the Otago University department of public health.
The Ministry provides age, gender, ethnicity and location of cases on its website, as well as potential links to overseas travel or local transmission. But Prof Baker says that's where we need to drill down deeper.
"We just think that we can do a lot better in how we present data, particularly now we're entering this elimination stage," he says.
Any links to aircrew or ship crew should be mentioned - because they indicate a failure of border quarantine systems.
"Because that's our key defence against this virus in the future," Prof Baker says.
The epidemiologists believe the MoH should say if the source of infection's unknown and investigations are exhausted because that could indicate potentially widespread transmission.
"For instance we should be able to see at a glance if there's a healthcare worker who may have been infected in a healthcare setting and that means something different from someone infected in the community or in a household," Prof Baker says.
The MoH has responded, saying it's their aim to ensure people are kept well-informed with as many details as possible while respecting privacy.
And that's why they've consistently taken on board what people want to see from the case breakdowns and added and edited their online information to match and why they're holding nearly daily news briefings.
"Privacy is a huge concern so we always have to protect that, that's really vital," Prof Baker says.
"At the same time it is a balance because the entire country's now investing a huge amount of effort in this control effort."
Public Health Expert says people like them and the armchair epidemiologists at home must know as much information as possible if we're going to eliminate COVID-19.
