Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand Southern (HNZ) yesterday announced the "temporary pausing" of all visits to the 22-bed ward, serving older adults, effective immediately.
The closure was because of increasing Covid cases, a statement said.
"Our priority is patient safety," it said.
"We apologise for the inconvenience to patients and their families.
"We know this is distressing for them, and we thank everyone for supporting our health care team to keep our community safe."
Visiting was available on compassionate grounds, it said.
Inquiries should be made through Southland Hospital.
Visiting remained in place for all other wards at the hospital. All visitors were required to wear masks and practice good hand hygiene and physical distancing.
The statement urged people not to visit loved ones in hospital if they were unwell with signs or symptoms of Covid-19.
An update would be provided when visitor restrictions eased.
No further comment would be made at this time, the statement said.
A HNZ spokeswoman was unable to confirm yesterday the increase in case numbers that prompted the decision.
She could not say how many times the ward was closed to visitors during the pandemic.
The Otago Daily Times reported in August the ward was closed to visitors for at least the fourth time.
HNZ said yesterday there were 2861 new cases in the region over the past 14 days to Wednesday. After four consecutive days of fewer than 200 new cases per day, there were 306 new cases on Wednesday.
