In his weekly newsletter, CDHB chief executive Peter Bramley said he expected to see community cases in Canterbury peak by mid-week, followed by hospitalisations in the middle of next week.
The staff away because of Covid-19 either had the virus or were household contacts, and there were more staff away for other reasons which increased the impact on those left behind.
Bramley thanked the hundreds of workers who had "put themselves out there", stepping out of their comfort zones to be redeployed into different jobs to help keep the health sector running.
Some had stepped out from behind a desk to help care for patients.
A lot of services and planned care had been put on hold to help deal with Covid-19 and it would take time for them to be fully reinstated as staffing allowed, he said.
The DHB "slowly but surely" increase the flow of planned care where it could do so safely, he said.
"It will take some time to ‘catch up’ with deferred appointments and surgery, and work is already underway to plan how this can be managed most efficiently," Bramley said.
He said staff are still supporting thousands of Cantabrians, as well as residents on the Chatham Islands, who are recovering from the virus.
"Since early December, 24,955 Canterbury people have recovered from Covid-19," he said.
-RNZ and Star News
