Yesterday was the bleakest day of the Covid-19 pandemic so far in the South, which recorded eight deaths across the past five days and had hospitalisations ascend into the 40s for the first time.
The eight deaths of people who had Covid-19, among 29 reported nationally, took the pandemic death toll in the South to 131.
There were 910 new cases reported yesterday, down slightly from Tuesday’s number of 946, but health officials are bracing themselves for a potential spike in cases caused by the large gatherings associated with the New Zealand v Ireland rugby test in Dunedin last weekend.
Yesterday the rolling seven-day average for new cases in the South was 728: a fortnight ago it was 478.
There were 43 southerners in hospital who had Covid-19, a number well in excess of what the designated Covid-19 ward at Dunedin Hospital, and an overspill ward, were intended to care for.
Interim district director Hamish Brown said that the Dunedin Covid ward was full, including patients in the sixth-floor isolation rooms.
"There is contingency for adult Covid positive patients to be managed on another ward if necessary," he said.
"Queen Mary and ICU also have Covid cases, and the Dunedin ICU/HDU is at capacity and currently has one patient with Covid."
On Tuesday Dunedin Hospital had been over capacity, but that had eased slightly and the hospital was 97% full yesterday, Mr Brown said.
Yesterday Health New Zealand Southern released the first regional breakdown of Covid-19 cases since June
29.
It showed that Otago and Southland was back above the 5000 active cases mark, a level of Covid not prevalent since early May.
There were 2497 active cases in Dunedin (up 831), 716 in Queenstown Lakes (up 290), 610 in Invercargill (up 235), 289 in Waitaki (up 10) and 287 in Southland (up 98).
Yesterday primary health organisation WellSouth extended the opening hours of its central Dunedin Covid community testing centre at 5 Malcolm St, from 9.30am-5.30pm, seven days a week.
"We want to reassure the community that testing is readily available," a spokeswoman said.
"The testing centre is open for drive-through and walk-in testing, with no appointment required ... as cases begin to rise in the southern community, it is important that people continue to test and isolate if they are unwell."
Nationally, 11,464 new cases of Covid-19 were reported by the Ministry of Health yesterday, of which 469 were reinfections.
Of those, 168 had previously had Covid-19 between one and three months ago.
Across New Zealand 729 people were in hospital who had Covid-19, for a seven-day rolling average of 643 cases: a week ago that rolling average was 454.
