New Zealand has suffered its deadliest day of the pandemic, with five new COVID-19 deaths and a doubling of community cases to record levels.
Health officials reported 12,011 new community cases on Friday, more than half in Auckland, as cases leap from 6137 on Thursday and 2365 at the start of the week.
Two of the five deaths occurred in Auckland's North Shore Hospital, with two further deaths in the Waikato and another in Tauranga.
New Zealand's COVID-19 death toll stands at 61.
The huge case count means New Zealand could soon overtake Australia, with a population five times higher, for COVID-19 infections.
Public health experts predict the peak of the Omicron outbreak is yet to come in New Zealand, which has avoided the worst of the pandemic for two years.
In contrast, cases are broadly trending down in Australia, which hit a peak in January and recorded 25,703 cases on Thursday.
With a PCR test positivity rate of 27.4 per cent, the actual rate of community transmission is likely to be a huge undercount.
Hospitalisations have also doubled from the start of the week.
There are 237 people with COVID-19 receiving care in hospitals, up from 116 on Monday.
The outbreak remains centred on Auckland, which produced 7963 cases, or two-thirds of Friday's count.
The next worst-hit region is the Waikato, Southern (comprising Dunedin, Invercargill and Queenstown), and the Bay of Plenty.
