Top of the South maintains 14 active cases

By Erin Bradnock

Nelson, Tasman and Marlborough remain at 14 active cases in the region, but with high uptake of testing in the region, experts urge the community to keep vigilant.

During Friday's 1pm Covid-19 update, deputy prime minister Grant Robertson and director of public health Dr Caroline McElnay addressed one new case in the region.

This one case was acknowledged as part of yesterdays 14 active cases in the region, now officially added to the tally today as it came back just after yesterday's cut off time.

This is one of 92 new covid-19 cases in Aotearoa today.

Grant Robertson said while there is "no particular cause for alarm in Nelson Marlborough" though he urged the community to stay vigilant.

"We do need people to be vigilant to wear their mask to make sure that they keep the appropriate levels of physical distancing depending on the circumstances they are in," he said.

Robertson told the media that Nelson has been doing "very well" with testing and vaccination numbers.

"We’re seeing excellent testing numbers around 1400 tests over the last day or so which is encouraging."

Huge lines continue to stretch out of pop up testing clinics in the region with reports of three hour wait times for some on Tuesday.

McElnay said the public health unit in Nelson was working closely with the school and businesses affected in the area.

"It is hard to say whether we will get more cases," she said. "But at this stage we have no particular cause for alarm."

The Nelson region will remain at the orange traffic level with a move to red not on the cards at the moment.

But Robertson said people with Covid-19 symptoms are tending to go for tests quite late after getting symptoms. He urged them to get tested earlier.