One more suspected case of norovirus was found in a staff member at Dunedin Hospital's Ward 5B yesterday, and the ward remains closed until further notice.
The ward closed on Monday night after staff and some patients fell ill with what was suspected to be the highly contagious virus.
So far nine staff members and four patients have fallen ill.
The ward is closed to patients and visitors.
Otago District Health Board infection prevention and control charge nurse manager Jo Stodart said it was hard to know where the infection came from.
There was a high incidence of vomiting and diarrhoea in the community, and it could have been passed on by someone visiting the ward.
She asked that people be more thoughtful when considering visiting the hospital.
Some people had the attitude that since hospitals were for sick people, it did not matter that they themselves were sick when visiting people.
"Some people who are having a day off work because they are sick, go and visit people in hospital."
The outbreak in the ward, which is for neurosciences, eyes and ear nose and throat patients, was being well managed, she said.
She reminded people of the importance of basic preventive measures such as hand-washing, and advised them to stay at home until they had been symptom-free for 48 hours to lower the risk to others.
Last night Dunedin Hospital, which had to postpone elective surgery on Monday because it had only five available beds, had 22 beds available.
Operations manager Megan Boivin said elective surgery was back to normal, although the hospital could not admit patients to the closed ward.
The hospital was reviewing the situation daily.
