Testing stations empty despite recent deaths
Community leaders’ calls for South Aucklanders to get tested fall on deaf ears. Jackson Thomas reports.
Calls for South Aucklanders to seek out Covid-19 tests fell on deaf ears, despite two deaths in the community.
Two people from the Auckland Covid cluster died from the virus in as many days – the 23rd and 24th Covid-19 deaths in New Zealand – prompting community leaders to make a plea for people in the area to go and get tested.
But yesterday, testing stations were deserted.
Former Cook Islands prime minister Joe Williams lost his battle with the virus yesterday morning, while another man, in his 50s, died at Middlemore Hospital on Friday.
Manukau Ward councillor Alf Filipaina said on Friday that the death made the outbreak feel very close to home, and hoped it would ‘‘wake people up’’ to the seriousness of the virus.
‘‘It’s an incredibly sad time,’’ he said.
‘‘Though I do hope some good can come from it, in the sense that it wakes people up a little bit. We need to go and get tested – especially in south Auckland. Go and get tested.’’
Filipaina’s calls were echoed by tara-Papatoetoe Local Board chairwoman Lotu Fuli.
But in tara, just past 3pm, doctors and nurses in full PPE could be seen standing around without a single car pulled into the numerous stations set up across the car park.
Several other spots around the region, including Ma¯ngere and Manurewa, were also quiet with only a handful of people choosing to take the test.
Aucklanders for the most part were instead busy lapping up the eased restrictions during the first weekend of alert level ‘‘2.5’’.
Nationally, there were 9470 tests completed on Friday, 521 fewer than the same time last week.
And there were three new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand on Saturday, two from community transmission, and one imported case.
The two community cases were linked to the wider Auckland August cluster.
One is a close contact to the Americold household sub-cluster and the other is a close contact of
a confirmed case linked to the Mt Roskill Evangelical Church subcluster. The lone imported case was a young child linked to a previously identified case. They arrived from India on August 23.
The active Covid-19 total stands at 112.