Visitor restrictions put in place after Covid cases were detected on several floors in the ward block will be lifted at 2pm today.
Pandemic management measures remain in place however, and patients remain restricted to two approved nominated visitors, except on compassionate grounds.
The hospital closed to visitors last Thursday, after cases were detected in two wards on the eighth floor, and wards on the fourth and third floors.
Southern District Health Board chief operating officer Hamish Brown said the lower floor wards had been cleared of Covid first, and the eighth floor had been reopened to patients at the weekend.
Tests were carried out on positive patients on the sixth floor yesterday, and patients who remained positive would be able to be cared for in beds away from the main ward.
"The Southern DHB would like to thank patients, their families and loved ones for their understanding and patience during this difficult time," a spokeswoman said.
"We appreciate the support and kindness shown towards staff and health care teams."
This was the second major incursion of Covid-19 in to southern hospitals during the recent outbreak: Southland Hospital was also forced to restrict visitor numbers for some days after Covid cases sprang up in its wards.
Both incidents placed considerable pressure on the dedicated Covid wards at each hospital, which at times were at or over capacity.
The number of people in southern hospitals who had Covid-19 dropped markedly over the weekend, to 22, but rose sharply again yesterday to 32.
Of those, 28 were in Dunedin Hospital, spread between the seventh-floor Covid-19 ward and the sixth-floor ward where the outbreak had occurred.
The ministry’s figures for new community cases took in Sunday and Monday, and said that the southern region contributed 770 cases to the national figure of 10,191.
Over that period 14 people who had Covid-19 died, four of whom were from the southern region.
The seven-day rolling average of community cases yesterday was 6202: last Monday it was 6885.
