Southern doctors believe plans to care for Covid-19 patients in the community are working well.
At least one of the four people in Dunedin Hospital with Covid-19 was transferred to hospital after initially being cared for at home, and doctors expect that process will continue as more cases occur in the community.
"We have to make adjustments along the way as there are new systems being put in place, and we will have to continue to be agile as case numbers grow," WellSouth medical director Dr Carol Atmore said.
While the Covid care in the community model was new, the underlying process of doctors referring patients to hospital when needed was standard practice, she said.
"We have been doing this as a health system for a long time, and people can be reassured that we have their healthcare needs at the forefront of our minds."
The Southern District Health Board reported a further 372 cases of Covid-19 yesterday, mostly in Dunedin (249) and Queenstown-Lakes (60).
That number was down on the high figures reported last week, possibly due to testing numbers traditionally being lower at the weekend.
The SDHB has also cautioned that case numbers would likely be unreliable in future as testing moved from swabbing in GP clinics or testing centres to rapid antigen tests (Rats) done at home, which relies on people then reporting a positive case to the Ministry of Health.
Testing centres are now mainly giving Rats to potential cases and some local pharmacies have also started to sell Rats.
The tests are expected to begin to be more widely available for sale next week after Foodstuffs North Island announced it would have them from next week.
There were a total of 4245 active cases in Otago and Southland, and WellSouth had started distributing some of its stock of pulse oximeters, which measure oxygen saturation in the blood, to people who were self-isolating, Dr Atmore said.
"As our Omicron outbreak is in the younger, healthier age group, the need so far for pulse oximeters has been light but we have our network in place, ready for distribution."
Nationally, 14,633 cases of Covid-19 were announced yesterday and 344 people were in hospital.
