A sudden surge in Covid-19 cases in Dunedin is being closely watched by the Southern District Health Board, which hopes the spike in infections is a blip rather than a trend.
The city yesterday reported 468 new cases of Covid-19, the highest figure in Dunedin since the southern region’s peak day on March 23: on that day 1631 cases were reported in the region and 503 in Dunedin.
Case numbers always go up sharply on Tuesday, as fewer test results are reported at the weekend.
However, the big jump from Monday’s 341 new cases in Dunedin surprised SDHB Covid-19 response lead Dr Hywel Lloyd.
"All our graphs are up and down a wee bit but are gradually trending down," Dr Lloyd said.
"We have posited that the change in settings to allow higher numbers to gather indoors might have something to do with it, but it’s hard to read that into these figures, to be honest."
The most likely explanation was the usual higher reporting rate at the start of a new week, but the SDHB would be closely watching today’s numbers to see if there were other potential issues affecting case numbers.
Modelling had predicted a possible late surge of cases in the older population, who were most likely to be taking maximum precautions against contracting the disease, but the demographic breakdown of the newest cases suggested that was not the case, Dr Lloyd said.
"What the numbers are showing us is that there continues to be an increase in cases in Invercargill and Southland: it may be too early to call whether they are over their case peak or not."
Yesterday 324 new cases were reported in Invercargill, 175 in Queenstown Lakes and 110 in Southland, from an overall total of 1331 new cases in Otago and Southland.
One death of a person in the region who had Covid-19 was also reported.
There were 28 people in hospital yesterday who had Covid-19: 16 in Dunedin Hospital (two in intensive care), eight in Southland Hospital, three in Dunstan and one in Lakes.
Dr Lloyd said Covid-positive patients were still being moved from Southland to Dunedin to ease the pressure on ward capacity in Invercargill, but admission rates were holding steady, which was an encouraging sign.
Nationally, 11,063 community cases were reported yesterday, the southern contribution being the third-highest of all regions.
The national seven-day rolling average of cases was the same as the previous Tuesday, 12,785.
A further 16 deaths of people who had Covid-19 were reported, all from the previous 24 hours.
This afternoon Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins will announce whether any part of New Zealand will move from the Red traffic light setting.
Advertisement
