South Island yet to pass Omicron peak as cases keep rising

The South Island, and Christchurch in particular, does not appear to have passed its Omicron peak yet as case numbers continue to rise. Photo: File image

• 2493 new cases in Canterbury

The Canterbury District Health Board reported 2494 new cases in the region for the 24 hours up to 8am on Thursday. That was up from 2403 for the previous 24 hours to 8am, Wednesday, but lower than the record 2642 cases on Tuesday.

The number of active cases in Christchurch have been rising quickly this week, with the CDHB reporting an increase of more than 1000 every day.

On Monday, the CDHB reported 11,840 active cases in the city, followed by 12,856 on Tuesday, 13,928 on Wednesday and 14,837 on Thursday.

Active cases in Canterbury as of 8am on Thursday. *Note, the Ministry of Health’s daily reported cases today in Canterbury may differ from those reported at a DHB or local public health unit level. This is because of different reporting cut off times and the assignment of cases between regions, for example when a case is tested outside their usual region of residence. These numbers also rely on people registering their positive unsupervised RAT test results. Image: CDHB

The Ministry of Health reported 1220 new cases in the Southern DHB area today, up from 1203 yesterday.

On the West Coast, there were 60 new cases today - double the number reported yesterday.

There were 521 new cases in Nelson Marlborough and 212 in South Canterbury.

It comes after reports of a "significant cluster" of Covid-19 cases at the Gloriavale Christian community.

It's understood that members were now self-isolating inside the closed religious community, which has about 600 members on sprawling land at Haupiri, 60km inland from Greymouth.

The south was behind parts of the rest of the country that have already passed the peak.

Epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker said Auckland had almost certainly passed its Omicron peak, and it seemed Waikato and Northland had too.

He said case and hospital data also suggested Taranaki, Lakes (in and around Rotorua) and Wellington's Capital and Coast health board regions had peaked or were peaking.

-By Devon Bolger