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As of 8am on Friday, there were 37 new Covid cases in the Ashburton District bringing the total to 147, out of Canterbury’s 336 cases.
The CDHB said its numbers may differ from the Ministry of Health’s daily reported cases due to different reporting cut off times.
Each time the CDHB had stated that due to privacy concerns it was “not breaking down the numbers further then the Canterbury region and the Ministry of Health announces the numbers each day”.
On Friday a CDHB spokesperson said “the [case] numbers are large enough now to allay concerns around privacy”.
However Ashburton Mayor Neil Brown said that it was under pressure from Canterbury Mayors that the CDHB made the change to releasing a district breakdown daily.
He said at the regional leadership group meeting, on Thursday, the mayors all pushed for the CDHB to start releasing district case numbers and they finally agreed.
Brown said it was a case of providing the community clarity on the situation at hand, with rumours swirling around the community on case numbers.
Selwyn Mayor Sam Broughton was among the Canterbury mayors seeking the district figures.
“It’s great that the DHB has now made this available to enable our community to understand the local numbers and see change over time,” Broughton said.
Rangitata MP, Jo Luxton, said she had only been receiving case numbers at a DHB level despite regularly asking for a district breakdown and so it was great to have the numbers released.
Brown said around 12 per cent of Canterbury’s cases were in the Ashburton District, which makes up around 10 per cent of the Canterbury population.
He said the 15-25 year old age bracket was making up a bulk, around 25 per cent, of the cases.
Cases have been confirmed at several schools across the district, including Ashburton College and Ashburton Intermediate.
Due to the increasing cases in Ashburton the Community testing facility moved from the Ashburton Hospital to a larger site on South Street on Thursday.
In Selwyn, where there was 108 cases on Friday, there is no community testing centre, only several GP practices across the district offering testing capabilities.
Selwyn MP Nicola Grigg has been requesting urgent consideration of providing Covid testing facilities in the Selwyn area.
“With Covid cases now evident in Selwyn schools, and pressure on testing sites in Christchurch growing, I have asked whether there are any plans to set up testing facilities anywhere in the Selwyn District to alleviate the growing demand for Covid testing.”
A local testing facility would also ease the burden on GP practices in the area Grigg said.
- by Jonathan Leask, Local Democracy reporter
