There was another death of someone with Covid-19 in Whanganui announced on Friday - taking the region's Covid-related death toll to 23.
O'Connor said there had been an increase in illness among hospital staff, but the hospital's plans remained in place and staff had contingency arrangements if significant numbers of them fell ill.
Whanganui Mayor Hamish McDouall said he had seen the recent increase in cases affecting staff numbers across the region.
"From what I've seen it's definitely impacting businesses out there and schools, I think some schools are just limping to the end of the term really," said McDouall who had been isolating with Covid-19 himself this week.
Keith St School principal Linda Ireton agreed that many schools across the region had been badly hit with winter illnesses, with some schools struggling to find relief staff as teachers fell ill.
"Many schools have had to be really flexible with either hybrid learning ... or relying on the incredible goodwill of our whānau in extreme situations when we've asked classes to stay home and learn from home," she said.
Ireton, who's also the Whanganui Principals Association president, said colleagues across Whanganui were aware of the Ministry of Health's concerns about a second major wave of Covid-19 and the impact on schools for term three.
Ireton said some school boards, including her own, were considering whether or not to make masks compulsory for Year 4-8 students.
Masks for children between Years 4 and 8 are not mandated under the central government orange light settings, and earlier this week, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said there were no expectations the country would return to red light settings.
However, Ireton said boards had been encouraged to make their own decisions around masks to meet the needs of their own communities.
"Where schools have been increasingly hard hit, we know masks do make a significant difference so there are those sorts of big decisions to be made which impact how people feel in this situation."
She said if children had mask exemptions, schools would be flexible to do what's right for individual children, but she expected schools would be asking families to support their children wearing masks at school where possible.
Ireton said she took her hat off to teachers, principals, and families across the region who have worked to be as flexible as possible to provide education for their classes in these difficult times.
With the increase in infection across the country, some school leaders also raised concerns that secondary school students' NCEA testing would be affected.
Whanganui City College deputy principal Valerie Rooderkerk said she had not seen a second wave of Covid-19 hit the school yet, with only one student reinfected.
"We've had lots of colds and tummy bugs but not Covid-19."
She said if a second wave were to hit they had plans in place so students going into NCEA testing would not be too badly affected, and they were ready to switch to remote learning in a worst case scenario.
"At the moment we're okay and we're set up to go into hybrid learning as well so I think that hopefully if we have to have time out of school they can just keep on doing their stuff at home.
"We've got plans for plans for plans, we've got plans A, B, C, D, and E," she said.
Concerns had also been raised for New Zealand's older population in the face of a potential second wave.
Covid-19 modeller Professor Michael Plank had said case ages were trending upwards, and he expected death rates to climb as the virus affected older people.
Donna Field of Quinlan Court retirement home said they had restocked PPE gear in preparation for a second wave.
However, Field said a notable increase in infection had not hit their premises yet.
"We haven't had it here yet, we've been lucky," she said.
O'Connor said the rate of infection would depend on a few key factors.
"Notably the level of immunity in the community, the ability of new variants to evade that immunity, and the amount of unmasked mixing among people."
Along with this, he said the best way for people to keep themselves safe during the school holidays would be to follow the advice from the Ministry of Health.
He suggested people wear a mask in public places, stay up to date with their Covid vaccination, practise good hygiene - like coughing into their elbows and washing their hands thoroughly - and be prepared to stay at home for a week if they feel unwell.
He also said people should seek medical advice from professionals like their GP or the drive-in Mauri Ora clinic at Whanganui Hospital if they feel unwell.
This week, the number of daily Covid-19 cases in New Zealand surged past 10,000 for the first time since April, with 13,344 new community cases recorded by the Ministry of Health this Friday.
Plank said the increase in case numbers was worrying.
"It's clear now that cases are trending upwards and we're at the start of a second wave and that is concerning."
