Virus test centre in Blenheim
A community testing facility for Covid-19 is opening in Marlborough to ease the pressure on ‘‘under the pump’’ GPS.
The Marlborough communitybased assessment centre (CBAC) will be at the netball pavilion at Horton Park in Stephenson St.
Nelson Marlborough Health (NMH) has partnered with the Marlborough Primary Health Organisation (PHO) to open the facility in the next week. The centre is not a ‘‘walk-in’’ clinic, and patients should ring their GP practice or Healthline first, to be directed to the assessment centre.
NMH strategy, primary and community manager Cathy O’malley said assessment centres were part of health boards’ pandemic plans nationwide.
‘‘While we do not have a confirmed case in the region, we are ready to respond to greater numbers of people needing assessment – and testing for coronavirus symptoms,’’ O’malley said yesterday. The sites were deliberately put in locations ‘‘with space around them’’ and would allow for physical distancing. Two other facilities in the top of the south were being introduced – at the former Surburban Club building in Nelson and a bridge club room in Motueka. In Picton, cabins were also being placed outside health centres to allow for the safe assessment of people with symptoms, away from waiting rooms. O’malley said a special advisory group had also been set up to reach vulnerable communities, with marae leaders, and refugee and RSE workers.
Springlands Health practice manager Mark Mclean, who last week installed an intercom to keep patients safe from potential infection, said the facility would ease pressure on practices.
‘‘Practices at the moment are really working under the pump, and having that centralised point in town for assessing and testing means the practices are able to focus on other patients and not just the Covid ones,’’ he said.
‘‘The number of people requesting tests ... is certainly
An idea to ‘‘freeze’’ rates has been pitched by Marlborough’s civic leaders to show ‘‘responsible leadership’’ in light of the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
Senior staff at the Marlborough District Council agreed on Wednesday to consider cutting this year’s rates rise to 2.2 per cent – the minimum needed to keep services running – to ease the burden on homeowners and business owners in these ‘‘unprecedented times’’.
Councillors had last month approved a 4.86 per cent rates increase, driven by a ‘‘very high level of capital expenditure’’, but would instead look at alternatives to projects to keep rates down at a established ‘‘a way forward for the province’’.
‘‘The idea behind this is we are ‘Team Marlborough’. We are all in this together. But it is an unprecedented situation that we are facing and that our homeowners and our business owners are facing,’’ Taylor said.