SDHB COVID-19 Update 03 June 2022

 Dunedin Hospital Update  

COVID-19 exposure events have occurred in several wards at Dunedin Hospital. These wards include 8 MED, 8 AT&R 4C and 3 Surg.  

The COVID-19 ward has been running at capacity. These exposure events may result in other wards being temporarily used as COVID-19 wards or COVID-19 positive patients being isolated in negative pressure single rooms outside of the COVID-19 ward.  

All necessary steps are being taken to ensure the exposure events are contained. This includes closely monitoring patient for signs and symptoms of COVID-19 and testing all patients who have been identified as being exposed to COVID-19. Full testing results will not be available till early next week.  

Patients are screened as they are admitted to hospital and strict safety precautions are adhered to including the use of PPE and streaming.   

Our staff are working hard to care for all patients at Dunedin Hospital and by limiting the number of visitors to the hospital, we increase our ability to contain any further exposure events. Limiting visitors is part of our escalation plan and a normal response to an exposure event.   

COVID-19 Exposure events are expected given the nature of the virus. Southland Hospital was recently closed to visitors for the same reason from 16 May and re-opened the following week.   

General visiting at Dunedin Hospital will re-commence as soon as possible.  

Our priority is patient safety. We apologise for the inconvenience to patients and their families. We know this is distressing for them, and we thank everyone for supporting our health care team to keep our community safe.  

Visiting during this time is available on compassionate grounds. Please contact the ward for further details.   

Attributable to Hamish Brown, Chief Operating Officer 

Weekly SDHB COVID-19 Media Releases to end 

As of the 06 June 2022 the weekly COVID-19 media release will cease. All data can be obtained through the Ministry of Health and media releases relating to COVID-19 will be released as and when needed.   

The SDHB communications team will continue to release the COVID-19 case infographic each Wednesday on our social platforms so that our community can keep themselves informed of COVID-19 cases by territorial authority if they choose to. This will not be released via a media release. All members of the media and public will have access to the infographic via the SDHB social media pages. If members of the media would like case data breakdown by TA on another day of the week, they will need to request this via the Ministry of Health.  

Hospitalisation figures 

Current hospitalisations as at 8am 03 June 2022  

Please note that hospitalisation data does not differentiate between patients admitted because of COVID-19 infection versus those admitted for a separate reason who happen to also have COVID-19. Hospital numbers reported by the Southern DHB include those in mental health wards.   

The Ministry of Health total figures for Southern for the previous 24 hours are: 

• 467 new positive cases  

• 3397 (not recovered from last 7 days)  

Current cases as of 11.59pm 02 June 2022  

Please note, the Ministry of Health’s daily reported cases may differ slightly 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. Total numbers will always be the formal daily case tally as reported to the WHO. Due to the increased use of RATs and system lag issues there may be a discrepancy in the number of total active cases from the territorial authority breakdown. A decision has been made nationally that areas with less than 5 new cases per 24-hour period will be reported as “<5”. All territorial authorities with less than 100 cases will have their case numbers rounded to the nearest 5. We are unable to supply further information. Please contact the Ministry of Health directly for more information about these decisions.