The number of active Covid cases in the South has dropped below 1000.
Just four and a-half weeks ago, there were more than 4000 active cases in Otago and Southland, but yesterday there were 926.
A regional break-down provided by Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand Southern (HNZS) showed case numbers were down in all regions, and sizeably so in some centres.
In Clutha, the number of active cases had more than halved in a week, from 71 to 33, while in Queenstown-Lakes there were 102 fewer cases: last Wednesday, that region had 273 active cases but yesterday it had 171.
Dunedin (330, down from 567) and Invercargill (155, down from 211) also reported substantial falls in active cases.
Active Covid case numbers in the South soared past 1000 on February 22 and had not dropped below that milestone since.
An HNZS spokeswoman said declining case numbers was something to celebrate, but reiterated that the organisation strongly recommended that people continue observing public health measures, especially mask wearing, to ensure that case numbers continued to fall.
Across the region, 155 new community cases were reported yesterday, from a national total of 2353 new cases.
The Ministry of Health reported that 17 people who were Covid positive had died, one of whom was from the southern area.
In Otago and Southland yesterday, 10 people who had Covid-19 were in hospital.
Nationally, 288 people were in hospital, but only two were in intensive care.
The rolling seven-day average of hospitalisations was 326, and the ministry said that both hospitalisations and intensive care patient numbers had also not been that low since February.
