Medical contingency plans were implemented in the region yesterday in response to the spike in Covid-19 cases.
Two wards at the former Cresswell maternity unit at Mountainhall have been opened to ease pressure on Dumfries Infirmary.
They will provide care for up to 10 non-Covid patients initially.
The move has been prompted by the increase in the number of people requiring urgent treatment for the virus.
As of yesterday there were 69 Covid patients in hospital, 14 of them in intensive care.
NHS Dumfries and Galloway’s chief operating officer Julie White said: “From the earliest stages of this pandemic, planning has been in place which provides flexibility in our ability to respond to the coronavirus outbreak.
“Although our services have been under pressure since the outbreak began, particularly during the first wave, the unprecedented number of local cases in recent weeks driven by the new Covid-19 variant has resulted in a record number of hospital admissions due to the coronavirus – and this has continued to grow.
“The number of newly identified Covid cases in the region has seen a slight decrease in recent days, but the situation remains precarious.”
She added: “The delay in time between someone developing Covid and potentially becoming extremely unwell means that many of the people currently being admitted to hospital became positive before local cases had reached their record high.
“In order to ensure that we are able to continue to provide urgent care to those most in need and to ensure that we have the resources where we need them, we have now enacted some of our contingency planning.
“As of today (Monday), Mountainhall wards one and two are now online, based in the old Cresswell building, staffed to provide care initially to 10 non-Covid patients.
“This will help ease some of the pressure within the system, particularly at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary where treatment is being provided to those most unwell with the effects of Covid.
“Doing this helps ensure we retain capacity in our system not just to manage Covid, but also to meet the many other urgent and emergency health requirements within our region.
“We also continue to provide treatment to both Covid and non-Covid patients at Galloway Community Hospital in Stranraer and four cottage hospitals have been earmarked previously to serve as Covid step-down facilities should they be required.”
The region has seen a dramatic spike in positive tests for the virus since the turn of the year, driven by the new variant of the disease.
According to Scotland’s chief medical officer there are “encouraging signs” that coronavirus transmissions in Dumfries and Galloway are slowing down.
But Dr Gregor Smith yesterday warned it is “too early” to say whether or not that is going to continue.
He said that the figures showed there was now a “slow decline” but it was “too early yet to be confident it is going to continue that way”.
Dr Smith added: “There are some encouraging signs just now that the community outbreaks – both in Stranraer and in other parts of Dumfries and Galloway – are beginning to slow down in transmission.”
There were 38 new cases reported in the region yesterday taking the total for this year to 1,494.
Since the start of the outbreak last March there have been 3,199 overall.
Across Scotland there were 1,429 cases reported yesterday taking the total since the start of the crisis to 163,762 There have been 78 deaths as a result of the virus since Friday and 5,305 overall.
