While daily Covid-19 case numbers were dropping in cities such as Auckland, the Director-General of Health says regions may be facing "a more sustained peak".
Dr Ashley Bloomfield said health officials had noticed that in district health board areas like Auckland, Capital and Coast, and Hutt Valley, outbreaks tended to go up and come down quickly.
"We're seeing a different pattern out in the regions where the outbreak develops more slowly and there is a more sustained peak."
That could be seen in areas that the Southern and Waikato DHBs cover, he said.
"Interestingly too we've seen a pattern of generally lower hospitalisation rates out in the regions."
Bloomfield said, for example, Tairāwhiti had been experiencing the highest case rates in the country recently, but only "a handful of hospitalisations" - fewer than three each day this week.
On Thursday, 15,250 new Covid-19 cases had been detected in the community. Auckland and Counties Manukau DHBs saw a drop in the number of active cases of 538 and 99 respectively.
Canterbury DHB currently had the highest number of active cases at 16,676.
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