Latest case statistics from the Ministry of Health show that in the past three weeks Covid cases in those aged 0-9 have more than doubled, from 4% of all cases to 9.1%.
In all, 3304 southern youngsters have contracted the disease during the outbreak.
The figures came as no surprise to Dunedin Kindergarten general manager Christine Kerr, who said every one of the 24 centres under the organisation’s umbrella had recorded cases.
"We have had children isolating because of parents, or catching it from siblings, or whatever it is," she said.
"We are coping OK and we really appreciate the efforts of the teachers who are making it work."
The southern outbreak initially took hold in Dunedin and Queenstown, but Southern District Health Board Covid-19 response director Hwyel Lloyd said numbers there were easing off and they were now seeing new spikes in Gore, Mataura, Invercargill and rural Southland, where cases were yet to peak.
Southland Hospital was close to its Covid capacity and the DHB was now deciding whether to open more Covid-19 beds or send patients to Dunedin Hospital, Mr Lloyd said.
Ms Kerr said Dunedin Kindergarten had had plenty of time to plan for the arrival of Covid-19 and most things had happened as expected.
Teachers had also been affected by Covid but centres were managing because there so many absent children that enough well teachers were still available to keep centres open, Ms Kerr said.
"We have to keep a certain ratio but because the number of children is lower we don’t need as many teachers."
Children had adapted to the demands of the pandemic with little trouble, Ms Kerr said.
"Back at the beginning we didn’t think children would like things like mask wearing, but children are incredibly resilient.
"All of those little things we thought would be a difficulty, children have risen above it and continued to enjoy kindergarten."
Those aged 10-19 and 20-29 continued to be most at risk of contracting Covid-19, making up 24% and 24% of all Southern cases respectively.
Less than 2% of Covid cases have been in the most vulnerable demographic of people aged over 70.
Last week, Southern District Medical Officer of Health Michael Butchard said that because they were well protected and generally fully vaccinated, the elderly elsewhere in New Zealand had tended to be the last to catch the disease.
Yesterday, Otago and Southland recorded 1386 out of the 15,918 cases of Covid-19 reported nationally by the ministry.
A further 15 deaths of people who had contracted Covid-19 were reported, one of whom resided in the SDHB region.
There were 26 people with Covid-19 in southern hospitals yesterday, 16 in Dunedin — two of whom were in intensive care — and 10 in Southland Hospital.
The highest number of cases was reported in Dunedin (413) followed by Invercargill (360), Queenstown-Lakes (189) and Southland (157).
There were more than 8300 active cases of Covid-19 in the South yesterday.
Nationally, there were 15,918 new community cases and 14 deaths reported yesterday.
- additional reporting RNZ
