Drivers in long test queues told to be patient
Only those displaying Covid-19 symptoms or who visited the same locations as the new Northland community case should get tested in a bid to ease long waits at testing centres, the director-general of health has said.
In a 1pm press conference providing updates about the case, Dr Ashley Bloomfield said those queueing at testing stations across the region must be patient.
‘‘They should take food and water and expect to wait.’’
People have been waiting for up to four hours to get swabbed in Northland in a bid to get reassurance they haven’t been exposed to Covid-19.
Two additional pop-up testing centres have been opened in Helensville and Mangawhai and opening hours at all existing testing centres in Northland and Auckland have been extended.
At the Ruaka¯ka¯ testing centre, Stuff photographer Lawrence Smith estimated there were 1000 cars waiting but only one tent staffed by four nurses. The queue of cars stretched about a kilometre, he said.
A healthcare worker waiting in line since 8.30am said a number of people had given up and left the queue, which stretched out of the testing centre’s car park and Port Marsden Highway.
The flow of information had been ‘‘very poor’’ he said, with no health officials to be seen on the ground.
‘‘Lots of people without masks are talking to each other trying to get information,’’ he said.
He said soon food and toilets would start to be an issue. ‘‘People are doing what they’ve been told but the execution of it isn’t ideal.’’
He said he decided to get tested as a member in his household was at a location at the same time as the infected woman.
The worker said there were no instructions at the site. While waiting he had spoken to Healthline, who had advised him to get tested and gave him a reference number.
‘‘We were on hold with Healthline for 62 minutes to get this advice,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, a healthcare worker at the Winger Crescent testing station, in Whanga¯rei, had been waiting in line since 8.45am.
‘‘I . . . can’t go back to work without being tested. Traffic is horrendous and I would say pretty disruptive to businesses.’’
The healthcare worker said they had seen an ambulance struggling to get past traffic to reach the nearby Bupa Merrivale Care Home.
‘‘I don’t think Northland is ready for mass testing.’’
New arrivals to the Pohe Island testing station in Whanga¯rei were reportedly being turned away and asked to come back later in order to keep the road clear for ambulances.
Katrina Vazey said she had been in line there since 8.30am and was not seen until after noon, as healthcare workers were constantly arriving and skipping the queue.
‘‘They should have a separate place for healthcare workers to go and get tested as you [are] sitting here for hours, then watching the hundreds of healthcare workers we have in Whanga¯rei jump the queue.’’
She said there were only two people administering tests at the station.
Vazey was getting tested because she had been at a liquor store only an hour after the infected person, buying a drink to celebrate her 50th birthday.
The liquor store was one of 28 businesses the recent returnee to New Zealand had visited before self-isolating.
The couple next to her had been at Parua Bay Tavern at the same time as the infected person, Vazey said, and were currently trying to keep their baby cool and happy in the car.
Another driver said she and another of the car’s occupants were essential workers and couldn’t get clearance to go back to work until they’d returned a negative test.
‘‘[The] situation is pretty hopeless, sitting in a hot car in the middle of summer. Why haven’t they put more testers on?’’ she asked.