Hospitals are feeling the strain as COVID-19 soars, with another record 22,152 cases on Wednesday.
Nearly a third of children presenting to Starship Hospital are COVID-positive.
Thirty children a day are being brought in with COVID symptoms, but most don't need emergency care, and it's putting pressure on services.
"Less than 10 percent of children presenting with COVID are being admitted," says paediatric emergency medicine specialist Mike Shepherd.
He's reassuring parents who are worried.
"COVID-19 in most children is a mild illness and can be managed by their whanau with some of those simple measures like keeping fluids up and keeping an eye on them," says Dr Shepherd.
He says emergency services should be kept free for those who really need them.
"Children that are very lethargic, children that are drinking less than half of their normal amount of fluid, children that have significant breathing difficulty, or if they have pain or distress that's not settling with simple measures like paracetamol or ibuprofen, in those cases people should seek assistance," Dr Shepherd says.
"Maybe with Healthline to start with or it might be to call 111 if they're deteriorating rapidly and we're very happy to see those children."
There are now 405 COVID patients in hospital, with 10 in high-dependency or intensive care. But that figure is expected to double and even triple in the coming weeks.
COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins admits it will be a challenging month ahead but says predicting the peak was "crystal ball gazing".
"Don't know is probably the best guess, it could be in the next few weeks, it could be longer than that and what we also don't know is how steep the mountain is going to be on either side," Hipkins says.
He says there is bed capacity but it's staffing them that's the problem.
At busy Middlemore Hospital, around 13 percent of staff are absent, mostly due to COVID.
"It's very challenging for the staff who are remaining at work with the work load," emergency department clinical director Vanessa Thornton says.
And it's no wonder with more than a quarter of ED patients infected.
"On Monday we looked at that data and about 27 percent of the patients presenting to the emergency department were positive with COVID," Dr Thornton says.
With a third of the country's COVID patients, Middlemore's deferring non-emergency surgery to free up more beds.
"We're making contingencies around beds a further 60 COVID beds, two wards, we're hoping it won't go over 60 more, we're nearly at the peak on the modelling," says Dr Thornton.
And it's not just Auckland feeling the pinch. Around 14 percent of clinical staff at Wellington Regional Hospital, and 15 percent at Kenepuru Community Hospital were absent this week, while 25 Canterbury DHB staff have tested positive.
Vaccines and boosters are helping to keep hospitalisations down, taking over as our main defence against COVID as the Government winds up MIQ.
Hipkins thanked MIQ staff for their service and had a message for the Kiwis who've been separated from their whanau during the pandemic.
"Not long to wait now and haere mai, welcome home," he said.
