There were 414 new community cases of Covid-19 and five deaths reported in the South yesterday as the number of active cases in the region continued to drop.
In a statement yesterday afternoon, the Ministry of Health said nationally there were 5296 community cases across New Zealand and 605 current hospitalisations.
Seventeen people are in ICU.
The seven-day rolling average of community cases today is 5812, down from 7618 last Friday.
Of the 19 deaths reported yesterday, five were from the Southern area, one from Canterbury, four from Auckland region, one from Waikato, two from Bay of Plenty, one from Tairawhiti, two from MidCentral, one from Wellington region and two from Nelson Marlborough.
Two were in their 60s, three in their 70s, nine in their 80s and five were over 90. Of these people, eight were women and 11 were men.
Te Whatu Ora Southern issued an update on cases in districts in the area, saying 36 people with Covid-19 were in hospital in the region yesterday, including 15 in Dunedin and 11 in Southland.
Cases have continued to drop in the South since Tuesday. In Dunedin active cases fell from 1585 on Tuesday to 1355 yesterday, in Invercargill cases dropped from 719 to 643 and in Queenstown active cases were down from 481 to 403.
The only districts to buck the trend were Gore (cases grew from 103 to 137) and Southland (from 242 to 245).
