The daily number of new community cases has dropped slightly today to 21,015 cases, but the number of people in hospital with the coronavirus continues to soar, rising to 845 today.
The Ministry of Health said 16 people are in intensive care.
Today's numbers are down compared to yesterday's 22,454 and 742 hospitalisations, with a record of 19 cases in ICU.
Case numbers at Auckland hospitals are higher than was expected - even in worst-case scenarios - with nearly half of children at Middlemore's emergency department testing positive.
It has meant large parts of ordinary care being put on hold to help the health system cope, along with new rules this week which allow health workers to continue to work on Covid wards while infected.
The government also announced a reduction in isolation times yesterday - to seven days across the board - to help keep sectors operational.
Infection in Auckland does appear to be plateauing, signalling a peak after which they can be expected to drop significantly, but there have been warnings of a second peak as other regions experience their own surge.
As New Zealand looks ahead to coming back down the Omicron mountain, attention increasingly turns to the effects of Long Covid.