The number of people turning up at Dunedin Hospital's emergency department with flu-like symptoms does not appear to be out of the ordinary, despite the recent influx of students returning from holidays.
Asked if there was pressure on the system now university students were back in Dunedin, Otago and Southland district health board incident controller Elaine Chisnall said, in a written response, there had been a steady day yesterday at the emergency department with a few people presenting with flu-like illness.
The numbers were comparable to other years.
The hospital had no patients in its intensive care unit with flu-like illness, she said.
In response to questions about whether there had been any women giving birth or pregnant women admitted because of swine flu, Mrs Chisnall said the board would not be providing information about that due to matters of privacy.
Yesterday, the death rate from the swine flu virus remained at 10 in New Zealand, while the cumulative total of confirmed cases rose from 2107 to 2230.
