The Southern district is celebrating passing 200,000 COVID-19 vaccinations, after one of its busiest weeks yet.

Now, fifty per cent of the population in the Southern district over the age of 16 have received at least one dose of the vaccine, with 37 per cent fully vaccinated.

Around 23,000 vaccines were delivered during the past week at over 100 clinics across the district, with more than 10,000 occurring this past weekend, the Southern District Health Board (SDHB) said in a statement.

This reflects the ramping up of the vaccination programme across the Southern district: it took 145 days to deliver 100,000 doses, but just 32 days to deliver the next 100,000 doses.

Vaccination centres have been set up in multiple locations in Central Otago.

The milestone was reached despite the Southern District Health Board (SDHB) pausing and reconfiguring clinics to operate under alert level four, and general practices responding to increased demand for Covid-19 testing, the SDHB said in a statement.

“We sincerely thank everyone involved in this enormous effort, in the mass vaccination centres, Maori health providers, pharmacies and general practices,” SDHB Covid-19 vaccine rollout lead Hamish Brown said.

He also thanked service providers and GPs who have adjusted services to help meet the demand for testing, which is “an absolute priority to ensure we find any cases of Covid-19 in the south”.

On the weekend 779 Covid-19 tests were taken by WellSouth staff and general practices around the district, with around 5,722 taken since the country moved into alert level four.

Anyone who wishes to arrange a test in the Southern district should call 0800 VIRUS 19, 0800 8478719.