Southern District Health Board (SDHB) is urging people to get their booster shots, after three Covid-19 cases have been found in the region. 

Two positive cases have been confirmed in Queenstown and one in Dunedin. The Dunedin case also visited Wanaka, and Cromwell during their infectious period. 

SDHB COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout Programme Lead Karl Metzler says people who are over 18, and who had their 2nd vaccination at least three months ago, need to get their booster now.  

“With today’s confirmed Covid-19 cases in Southern, our community needs to band together to protect ourselves and each other. Some people may have been taking a ‘wait and see approach,’ however it takes about two weeks after vaccination or the body to build protection against COVID-19, so now is the time to act” 

He says those within the SDHB area did well in getting the initial vaccines and hopes to see this trend continue. 

“As a district, Southern did a fantastic job of getting our two shots, which provided us great protection against Delta. We need to do it again in February by getting our booster dose – because this is the best way to fight Omicron,” he says. 

SDHB say providers across the Southern region have added additional vaccination capacity to meet expected demand for Big Boost February.

To avoid queues, people are encouraged to book online at bookmyvaccine or by calling 0800 28 29 26.

Information about clinics with appointments available this weekend are listed at www.southernhealth.nz/COVID19/clinics

When locations of interest are identified they will be published on the Ministry of Health website:

https://covid19.govt.nz/testing-and-tracing/locations-of-interest/

SDHB asks all who live in, or have visited, the Dunedin, Wanaka, or Cromwell areas to check the list, and says anyone with cold or flu like symptoms, no matter how mild, to get tested and isolate at home until a negative test result is returned.

The Dunedin case is currently isolating at home and at this stage the COVID-19 variant has not been confirmed. This will be confirmed once genome sequencing is completed.

This case will be counted in tomorrow’s Ministry of Health case numbers, as will the two cases confirmed earlier in Queenstown.

Investigation into the source of the Dunedin case is ongoing.