School to be used as Covid-19 test facility
A school in the capital will be used as a coronavirus testing facility as the city’s main hospital is overwhelmed with an influx of patients.
Newtown School principal Mark Brown said school representatives had met with Capital & Coast District Health Board staff yesterday when it was agreed three single-storey buildings at the school would be used for coronavirus testing.
A DHB spokesman confirmed it had plans to use the school as a community-based assessment centre, however it had not yet finalised a date and time.
He urged people not to turn up for assessment there, as it was not set up yet.
Brown said the school’s community and board of trustees has been preparing for the move. ‘‘We cleared out our hall and other areas . . . just like we were expecting it to be used.’’
The school, just across the road from the hospital, had originally approached the education ministry, saying the building was available during the lockdown period, however then the DHB approached it afterwards about the possibility, Brown said.
‘‘We’re a community and it’s a public building. It’s completely the right thing to do, to be able to look after our community in a wider sense.’’
There was no push-back on the idea from board of trustees members, he said.
Contingency plans were in place if the DHB still needed to use the facility once students returned to school post-lockdown. Areas of the school were able to be completely cordoned off from staff and students.