Officials declared a national whooping cough epidemic on November 22 after weeks of consistently high case numbers, hospitalisations and unlinked outbreaks.
Whooping cough (also known as pertussis) is a highly contagious respiratory tract infection that causes breathing difficulties and severe coughing fits, with a cough that has a whoop-like sound.
The latest figures from ESR show 156 new cases were reported last week, up from 80.
There were 10 people hospitalised last week, including four babies under 12 months old.
The Southland region continues to have the most cases, going from 12 to 33 in the week ending November 29.
Pacific Island Advisory Charitable Trust (PIACT) held a whooping cough vaccination clinic drive last Friday.
Medical staff administered the whooping cough vaccine at the PIACT premises on Bowmont St, Invercargill, throughout the day.
Children and parents lined up along with their grandparents.
"Today we ran a whooping cough vaccination clinic for the Pacific Island community.
"We know that there is an epidemic at the moment of whooping cough in New Zealand, and the cases of whooping cough are rising steadily each month," PIACT community outreach nurse Rebecca Wright said.
"The whooping cough epidemic is expected to last around one to two years in New Zealand, so we are just trying to protect our whānau, our families," Ola Manuia nurse Richard Dalhousie said.
"For pēpi (babies) under 12 months, it usually can be quite horrific for them and one out of every two babies that get it will end up in hospital.
"So if we get protected, get vaccinated, that will help stop those statistics from happening," he said.
Invercargill resident Toetu To’omata took two generations of her family to the drive and left "confident and happy" they were now protected.
PIACT general manager Rachel Murray said clinics would run on Tuesdays and Thursdays and the whooping cough vaccination was free.
National Public Health Service specialist Dr Matt Reid said most regions were experiencing consistently high case numbers, including some hospitalisations.
"We are expecting to see higher reporting of numbers due to increased public awareness and anticipate case numbers will continue to rise in the coming weeks," Dr Reid said.
This year, 38 babies under 6 months old had been hospitalised.
University of Otago immunologist Dr Dianne Sika-Paotonu said the latest numbers were concerning.
"Whooping cough can be very dangerous for our little ones," she said.
Dr Sika-Paotonu said whooping cough spread quickly but was easily prevented through immunisation.
However, she said immunisation rates had been dropping.
■For information regarding vaccination locations in Southland, go to info.health.nz and click on the immunisations tab.
