The hospital was in code black, which means four or fewer beds are free, for the second day running and some elective surgery and procedures were postponed yesterday.
In a double blow, the orthopaedic ward had to be closed when six people fell ill with suspected norovirus, at the same time as the hospital struggled to cope with high urgent demand on Monday.
No more patients or staff in Ward 3C fell ill yesterday with the vomiting and diarrhoea symptoms of the highly contagious virus.
The ward will not admit any patients, allow visitors or transfer patients to rest-homes or other hospitals.
Otago District Health Board operations manager Megan Boivin said management tried to avoid postponing surgery or procedures and was leaving any decisions until the last minute, as the situation could change rapidly.
"I have got no idea what is going to happen overnight and we will review [the situation] first thing tomorrow morning."
There were 26 planned admissions today, which included patients coming in for surgery, procedures or other investigations.
A combination of high urgent demand and more patients in hospital who were "quite sick" and therefore staying longer than usual, was causing the bed shortages, she said.
With some elective surgery postponed yesterday, the hospital had been able to run another theatre for urgent surgery, which had cleared some of the backlog.
Patients coming into the emergency department included a mix across both medical and surgical services and there was no particular reason for the increased demand.
