The Canterbury District Health Board announced 1843 new cases in the region over the 24 hours up to 8am today. That brings the total number of active cases to 13,316 in the region. Yesterday was the first time Canterbury recorded in excess of 2000 new cases in 24 hours.
The CDHB is under increasing pressure as staff become infected. About 150 nurses and other workers have Covid-19, while another about 250 are isolating due to being household contacts.
The new infection rate represents a huge jump from just two days ago, when the board said only 90 staff were infected.
Chief executive Peter Bramley said at a health select committee hearing yesterday there were 18 people in hospital with Covid, and hospitalisations were expected to peak in the next three weeks.
“The big challenge with Covid is about supporting the health system as a whole,” Bramley said.
Said Bramley: “There is just some significant gaps for a variety of reasons that put our front line teams, in particular, under significant pressure. A lot of our concern is around the well being of our staff.”
Canterbury incident controller Tracey Maisey said staff were being deployed in preparation for the peak.
For example, it would be combining wards at Ashburton and Burwood hospitals and relocating residents from rural facilities.
“We may have to reduce some of our planned care surgery potentially from next week,” Maisey said.
Once surgeries and other deferrable care was reduced, staff could move into the Covid ward, which was currently only half full. Christchurch Hospital had not yet begun using its Covid progressive care unit, which is a step down from intensive care.
It was not clear how many planned surgeries may have to be postponed or when the board would make a decision on this. The board was not able to come back to The Star by deadline yesterday.
