In December, the Dunedin number stood at 3581, which had been an increase on the previous month.
In Southland, where 1363 patients were overdue in December, the number stood at 1348 (26% of patients).
The Southern District Health Board says "significant progress" is being made on clearing the backlog that caused dozens of people to lose part of their sight while they waited for appointments. Chief medical officer Dr Nigel Millar, in a statement, said a plan was being implemented in two parts.
The first part was designed to reduce the number of overdue patients to "as close to zero as practical" by the middle of the year.
"Locum ophthalmologists have been in place and working since early December ...
"This has involved seven doctors in total, with at least one, and on most weeks, two doctors working in addition to our usual workforce," Dr Millar said.
The board would also make system changes to ensure the same problem did not happen again.
"These initiatives include the appointment of permanent staff in ophthalmology and making use of other clinical groups to complement the service delivery of the specialist workforce.
"This includes the development of a skilled nursing workforce to become Avastin injectors and utilising optometrists where possible, both in-house and those in the community."
Optometrists are being recruited to work in hospital alongside ophthalmologists.
An explosion in the use of Avastin — a low-cost drug used off-label to treat age-related macular degeneration — has been cited previously as the cause of the waiting list blow-out.
Work was under way on the external review of patient harm caused by the treatment delays.
"This review was started in December and we are currently awaiting the final report, which is due in the first quarter of 2017," Dr Millar said.
