Hawke’s Bay Hospital has postponed some elective surgery and its restricted visiting policy remains in place as RSV presentations continue in children, and increase in adults.
Hawke’s Bay Hospital currently has 27 children in its paediatric ward, mostly with respiratory illness.
The DHB said other areas such as the ICU and the Emergency Department remain very busy.
Chief Medical and Dental Officer Robin Whyman said RSV was now affecting adults - especially older people or those with underlying health conditions.
He said while adults mostly tended to have milder RSV symptoms, it could cause severe illness in adults with underlying lung disease or a weakened immune system.
Staffing of the hospital had also been impacted as there was a lot of staff sickness and the district health board was calling in all casual staff.
Dr Whyman said the difficult decision to postpone eight elective surgeries yesterday was made, and this will be reviewed again today.
He said he understood urgent care and general practices were also busy but it was important for people who were sick and progressively getting worse to get medical help early, to help prevent a hospital admission.
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Tararua Police are seeing an increase in the number of fuel thefts from rural properties.
Officer in charge, Senior Sergeant Dave Fraser, said some of the thefts are from quite isolated areas, and mainly in the southern part of the district.
He said anyone that sees suspicious vehicles should ring Police on 105, and take details of vehicle descriptions, and number plates, as these are particularly useful.
Mr Fraser said as of yet Police don’t have any suspects.
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Tararua Mayor Tracey Collis is reminding people of upcoming changes to recycling in the district.
From August 2nd, the kerbside recycling collection will move from a weekly to a fortnightly service.
Mrs Collis said the changes came following a review of rubbish and recycling activities across the district.
Currently, kerbside collection for plastic, paper, cardboard and cans occurs weekly on Monday for Norsewood and Ormondville, Tuesday for Dannevirke and Thursday for Eketāhuna, Pahiatua and Woodville.
Mrs Collis said there would be no change to the current ten recycling centres and four rubbish collection stations in the district.
