The status auto includes all automatic replies such as out of office, sick-leave, paternity/maternity leave etc.
This is one of the few statuses, which do not block the outreach.
If your contact status changes to auto you can pause the contact for the certain period of time, you can do that as follows:
go to contacts
select the status auto
select all contacts
click pause contacts on the right side panel
select the date
click pause selected contacts