Canterbury District Health Board is still grappling with high numbers of Omicron cases weeks after it thought it would be over the worst.
It had expected numbers to be in single digits by now - instead there are more than 1300 cases in the community and 71 Covid-19 patients in the region's hospitals - both figures second only to Auckland.
About 200 staff have been off sick with the virus over the last three weeks but it's still planning to start bringing back more elective surgery from Tuesday.
Niva Chittock reports.
