Central high school teacher numbers have settled, and rostering home for students has stopped for now, but many people are still isolating or unwell with covid-19 and some Southern hospitals have capacity constraints.

Latest figures released by Southern District Health Board (SDHB) were 36 new positive cases for Central and a total of 299 active cases. There were 38 cases in hospital in Southern.

Seventeen people were in Dunedin, 19 in Southland and 1 in both Lakes and Clutha hospitals. None were ventilated or in ICU.

Southland hospitals medical, surgical and rehabilitation wards remain closed to visitors to protect vulnerable patients.

Simon Donlevy, general manager Southland, Southern DHB said capacity issues meant they are unable to transfer any patients to Dunedin hospital.

“Over the past six weeks or so, we have transferred approximately 15 patients to Dunedin in order to preserve our covid beds and continue to allow patient flow.   

“We have not been able to transfer patients for the last 48 hours due to capacity issues that exist across the district,” he said.   

“We understand that ongoing visitor restrictions may be distressing for patients and their families, and we thank you for your patience and understanding. We appreciate you supporting our health care team to keep our community safe."

Visiting is available under compassionate grounds, people need to contact the wards for further information.

Dr Michael Butchard, medical officer of health for SDHB said masks are still an important safeguard.   

“When you leave your home, wearing a well-fitting mask when indoors is still one of the very best ways to protect yourself, your whānau, and those around you from covid-19.

"The Southern DHB region currently has one of the highest rates of covid-19 in New Zealand, higher than all of the North Island DHBs and the larger South Island DHBs, so please still keep up your mask wearing.”

In the media release SDHB cautioned about the increased chances of complications, such as pneumonia and blood clots in the lungs, if a covid-19 infection occurs near the time of an operation.

SDHB said If you are having surgery and have had covid, or get it while you are waiting for surgery, please get in contact with your surgical team right away.

“Your surgical team need to know when your covid-19 infection happened so that they can take this into account when balancing the risk of delaying the surgery with the risk of complications that could arise because of your covid-19 infection,” a spokesperson said. 

Most operations can still safely take place following four to eight weeks after recovery from covid-19. Surgical teams will be able to discuss what is best for individual situations. 

The Southern region recorded another 591 new positive cases yesterday according to the Ministry of Health (MOH). The total cases in Southern (not recovered from the last seven days) is 4441.

There were 17 further deaths and two of these were from Southern. 

In yesterday's statement, MOH said the nationwide seven-day rolling average of community case numbers had now risen to 8032, compared to 7548 last Friday.

Case map for Southern for May 20. PHOTO: Southern District Health Board

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