Southern DHB Media update - Sunday 22 August 2021

Southern district reaches milestone of 200,000 vaccine doses

The Southern district is celebrating passing 200,000 COVID-19 vaccinations, after one of its busiest weeks yet – which occurred despite pausing and reconfiguring clinics to operate under Alert Level 4, and general practices responding to increased demand for COVID-19 testing.

Around 23,000 vaccines have been delivered this week at over 100 clinics across the district, with over 10,000 occurring this weekend.

This reflects the massive 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.

The milestone concludes an intensive weekend of activity, including the district’s first drive-in clinics offered by Otakou Health Care Ltd at the Edgar Centre in Dunedin, delivering some 3,367 doses since it opened on Friday.

50% of the population in the Southern district over the age of 16 have now received at least one dose of the vaccine, with 37% now fully vaccinated.

“We sincerely thank everyone involved in this enormous effort, in the mass vaccination centres, Maori health providers, pharmacies and general practices,” says Southern DHB COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Lead Hamish Brown.

“We especially acknowledge that this has been achieved while these same providers are adjusting their services to meet the need of patients under Alert Level 4, and while many general practices have also been meeting the demand for COVID-19 testing – which is an absolute priority to ensure we find any cases of COVID-19 in the south.

“We also acknowledge the staff and employers of essential services, who have responded to the opportunity to ensure these workers are protected again COVID-19 and attended clinics in recent days.”

COVID-19 testing

This weekend 779 COVID-19 tests were taken by WellSouth staff and general practices around the district, and around 5722 since we moved into Alert Level 4*. This includes around 150 swabs at a dedicated testing site at the University of Otago.

We thank everyone for coming forward to be tested if they have symptoms or have been in a location of interest at a relevant time. Anyone who wishes to arrange a test in the Southern district should call 0800 VIRUS 19, 0800 8478719.

*Please note testing data is preliminary and may vary from final data published by the Ministry of Health.