Covid 19 Omicron outbreak: One in 30 have Covid in Ashburton District

FOOTER

Ashburton's mayor is playing down what looks to be a worrying statistic that shows one in 30 people in the district are active Covid-19 cases.

Canterbury DHB figures showed there were 1156 active cases in Ashburton as of 8am Monday morning, which was 307 new cases since Friday. That meant that about one in 30 people in the Ashburton District were an active case of Covid 19.

But Ashburton Mayor Neil Brown did not think it was reason to be alarmed.

"It's still only about 3.2 per cent," he said. "It still keeps accumulating every day, popping up another 0.1 percent.

"I don't know what it's going to get to, whether its 30 or 40 per cent, we just don't know, but it's still low in percentage terms."

The number of daily new cases had been flat lining in the district since the end of last week Brown said but it was a question of whether everyone was getting tested or were reporting their RAT test results.

He expected the case numbers to continue to rise and while it was currently a low percentage of positive cases across the district, it was having an impact.

"It is affecting business and the workforce out there."

As the district had a high vaccination rate, Brown said the community just needed to keep being vigilant and do what they could to minimise their risk.

On Monday afternoon the Ministry of Health reported 1390 new cases in Canterbury since Sunday, with the CDHB figures showing around 1.7 per cent of the region's population were active cases.

Selwyn cases increased to 1057, a jump of 355 cases since Friday, representing around 1.4 per cent of its population.

Nationally there were around 180,000 cases, 3.5 per cent of the population.

Given the growing number of cases it was unlikely the Ashburton District Council would be removing its vaccine pass requirements to its facilities anytime soon.

"Given the growing number of cases in our community, the importance of the booster shot in relation to omicron, and the ongoing consideration of our staff's health and safety, there is no immediate plan to remove the requirement for a vaccine pass," council chief executive, Hamish Riach, said.

"The council's approach aligns with our neighbouring councils, and we're not aware of any planning to immediately lift their mandates.

"While there is currently no specific end date to the mandates, the matter is under constant review, and we'll look to guidance from both staff and central government about the appropriate time to lift restrictions."

He said the council had only received a handful of formal requests to remove the vaccine pass requirements at council facilities since it was put in place earlier this year.