In a bid to manage any future outbreak, health nurses are checking the itineraries of all international passengers arriving at southern airports in a bid to keep track of passengers.
"We are getting people to write down where they are staying in case we need to get in contact with them," Otago and Southland medical officer of health Dr Marion Poore said.
As well, beginning this week, there would be new measures on international flights into the southern region - Dunedin, Queenstown and Invercargill - ensuring passengers knew where to go and what to do if they began to feel unwell, despite being rugged up against the cold, Dr Poore said.
The advice would be distributed to all inbound passengers beginning this week, but would not include screening people for fevers and other signs of infection.
With the winter ski season beginning in Queenstown and the annual Winter Festival about to start, Dr Poore said there had been "a lot of planning and thinking" on the best way to minimise and manage a potential outbreak in the area as more flights and people arrived in the region.
"The best thing people can do [if they feel unwell with flu-like symptoms] is stay at home and not be in contact with people," she said.
The "manage it" approach has been adopted around the country with Ministry of Health director of public health Dr Mark Jacobs urging people to only go to their doctor if they had "other significant health problems or if they become seriously ill . . . with shortness of breath".
Dr Poore said seasonal respiratory illnesses and flu were still affecting people "in a normal pattern" for the time of year.
There had been "a number of cases" from around Otago, including Queenstown, which had come to the attention of Public Health South, but none of them had turned out to be swine flu.
