Visiting is now temporarily suspended effective immediately to the Surgical Ward at Southland Hospital due to an increase in Covid-19 exposure events.

It follows visiting to the Assessment, Treatment & Rehabilitation Ward (AT&R Ward) being suspended on Monday, 1 August.

"All necessary steps are being taken to ensure the exposure events are contained," a statement from Te Whatu Ora – Southern (Health NZ) reads.

"This includes closely monitoring patients for signs and symptoms of COVID-19, and ensuring our staff are well when they come to work.

"Our priority is patient safety. We apologise for the inconvenience to patients at Southland Hospital 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 the Surgical Ward and the AT&R Ward during this time is available on compassionate grounds. Please contact Southland Hospital (03 218 1949) for further details. 

Visiting remains in place for the rest of the hospital from 2-6pm.

To reduce the spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses, infection prevention and control measures will continue to be in place at Southland Hospital.

These include:

• All visitors will be screened at the door.
• All visitors are required to wear a surgical mask and keep it on for the entirety of the visit to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses.
• Surgical masks are available at the hospital entrance.
• Patients will only be allowed two nominated visitors per stay (only one visitor is allowed per day) with the exception made on compassionate grounds.

"Please stay home stay home if you are unwell and not visit your loved ones in hospital until you have been fully recovered for at least 24 hours."

Te Whatu Ora – Southern will provide an update when visitor restrictions ease.