Covid-19 testing in Canterbury reached a near-record yesterday with DHB staff reporting it was the busiest day since the original outbreak last year.
Senior responsible officer for the Covid-19 response, Canterbury DHB, Dr Helen Skinner said the DHB has increased capacity after the latest community case was announced.
Community-based testing centres in Canterbury conducted 10 times the amount of tests on Wednesday as they did the same day last week.
They conducted 1119 swabs for testing compared to 110 swabs last Wednesday.
Those figures exclude routine surveillance testing of border workers and swabs taken by general practices - their tests bring the total number to 3000 in Canterbury.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Ashley Bloomfield are urging people in the South Island to get tested if they have symptoms, to help them make a decision on alert level changes.
