Many students in Dunedin are isolating in flats and some are having trouble accessing food due to delays with Countdown's delivery service.
Reece said he was isolating at as he was a close contact of a Covid-19 case.
He had been for a test, three days ago, but still had not received a result. It was ‘‘taking forever’’, he said.
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He knew a few people had tested positive but believed the true number would be higher.
His message for people was that the situation was "a lot more serious than you think".
"If you have the chance to isolate, isolate," he said.
His flat had groceries delivered by Countdown and they had taken a day to arrive.
The experience had been ‘‘alright’’, but he had heard of some flats experiencing up to a few days' delay.
Currently the Countdown website says all delivery times for the next few days are fully booked in North Dunedin.
Due to high demand for online shopping, delivery slots were limited and customers were encouraged to shop in-store so deliveries could go to those most in need, the website said.
Countdown director of corporate affairs, safety and sustainability Kiri Hannifin said demand for online delivery was increasing around the country as more people isolated.
Dunedin had seen a sharp increase in orders for delivery being made.
The company was doing as much as it could to manage this demand and would be opening up more delivery slots for Dunedin soon, she said.
Among those students isolating in the city are flatmates Chloë Almey and Matt Mason, who are potential close contacts of a positive Covid-19 case.
Chloë said she got back to Dunedin on Saturday and did not even have time to go food shopping before she had to isolate as a potential close contact.
They invited their neighbours around for half an hour, but one of the neighbours returned a positive Rat test the next day.
They had not been contacted by public health authorities and intended to get a test on day five as they were not currently symptomatic.
They were more annoyed at having to isolate than anything, she said.
It seemed like students were jumping in and out of isolation because when one stint of isolation was finished, they would go out and socialise and have to isolate again.
She knew of only one student who had not been a close contact, and while none of their friends had tested positive, friends of friends had.
She felt frustrated by the undercounting of Covid cases in the South, and said they might not have had people over if they had known the risk.
She could not understand why NHI (National Health Index) numbers had been assigned to the wrong region, she said.
Responding to news of today's shift to phase three, Chloë said the news of the change to isolation rules was ‘‘very exciting for us’’ but all the other flats around them had positive cases so they were still stuck in isolation.
Matt said they had been ordering Uber Eats, which was a bit of a pain because it was "quite expensive" but they had signed up to an OUSA food parcel and their landlord had offered to help them out with getting
groceries.
He felt the university had been pretty good with providing students with information and doing contact tracing.
Isolating during O Week was quite annoying, as they had administrative tasks to complete such as getting ID cards and course advice.
Both believed the majority of students were doing the right thing by isolating and getting tested.
Sophie said she had a fever, cough, headache and body aches after having drinks with around 10 people on Monday.
On Tuesday, one of the people tested positive on a Rat test.
She believed he was still waiting on results from a PCR test.
She went to the Victoria Rd testing centre where she was given a Rat test.
She said she was anxious about the whole experience and felt ‘‘like s***’’ from the symptoms she was experiencing.
She tested negative on her second Rat this morning and had food dropped off by her sister.
It felt ‘‘kinda weird’’ that the new rules announced by Chris Hipkins today would mean that she was technically no longer required to isolate, but she would continue to be extra cautious following the advice of health professionals, she said.
