Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says he's not expecting another big number of cases like Wednesday's high of 45.
He told Morning Report he's not guaranteeing anything though.
"Based on what we were seeing from our contact tracing yesterday, it looks like we potentially will have a smaller number again today.
"But you know, extra cases can come in overnight, so I don't want to draw hard and fast lines in the sand over that."
Hipkins pushed back against suggestions the outbreak is out of control, and said most of the cases were to be expected.
"That was a big case number, and it's understandable that people will look at that and think that's a lot of extra people.
"But the vast majority of those were known contacts of existing cases, or household members of existing cases, were already in isolation and so the risk of further spread from those people was relatively contained."
There were twelve unlinked cases yesterday that did not have a clear link and of those twelve six were under investigation.
"When you boil those numbers down, they've got a pretty good handle on most of these extra cases coming in," Hipkins said.
People showing up to hospital with Covid-19, which one of the cases reported yesterday did, is still a worry though.
"What we do know is in some cases, people have been arriving at hospital, around about the time that they have been identified as a contact," he said.
"It's a timing issue. In some cases, they just didn't know that they were a potential contact and potentially could have Covid-19. We are talking a very small number of people, but it's still a significant risk."
Hipkins said according to authorities level three does not appear to be driving more cases.
"Based on the feedback that we've had from our contact tracing team who, of course, are aware of all of the circumstances of the individual cases, they're indicating so far, that actually level three hasn't been a big factor here."
He also said wastewater testing in Tauranga, which recorded a positive for Covid-19 earlier in the week, has since come back negative.
