There are 4924 new community cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand today and a further 11 Covid-related deaths. 

There are 424 people in hospital with the virus, including 7 in intensive care. 

Meanwhile, Public health experts warn New Zealand may be seeing the start of a new surge in cases as a new, more infectious Omicron strain spreads across New Zealand. 

Daily community cases were averaging 6825 over the seven days to Saturday - up more than 2000 on the previous week. 

Hospitalisations are also up, with 423 people in hospital on Saturday with the virus, and 20 new deaths reported. 

Otago University epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker told RNZ that followed a couple of months of declining case numbers. 

"This is a very marked increase in numbers just in the last week - so I think that's very convincing," the public health expert said. 

It wasn't clear how big the surge would be, but there were multiple factors affecting the numbers - particularly the arrival of new, more infectious Omicron subvariants BA.4, BA.5 and BA.2.12.1, he said. 

A Covid-19 modeller says BA.5 cases are doubling every week, and will soon overtake BA.2 as the dominant strain. That could see New Zealand return to its March peak of 25,000 daily infections, according to Dr David Welch, a senior lecturer at Auckland University. 

Welch said the rise was "alarming" but the public were not helpless in the face of the new strain. Many were eligible for more vaccinations against the virus, including a second booster shot for the most vulnerable. 

"A lot of that makes a really big difference to outcomes. It's also a time for people to recognise a wave is coming and I think we've got pretty used to being fairly relaxed about seeing other people. It might just be time to start pulling back a bit." 

Another Covid-19 modeller, Professor Michael Plank, has also warned the coming wave is of concern, given it's winter and emergency departments are already swamped with flu and many people have waning immunity from infection or earlier vaccinations. 

 

New Zealand remains at the orange traffic light setting following a review this week. Covid-19 Response Minister Ayesha Verrall said on Thursday that moving back to red was unnecessary as the virus was still being managed at orange.