Coronavirus test demand soars

Demand for coronavirus tests in Waikato soared on Monday, with almost 800 people tested in a day. That’s more than double the total number of tests for the whole week before, and comes in the wake of an Auckland lockdown prompted by community cases. Throughout the previous week, just 287 people were tested at Waikato communitybased assessment centres, Waikato DHB data shows. Go back another week – which included a low-risk, historical community case being reported in Hamilton – and 271 people were tested. As people rushed in for tests on Monday, traffic control was set up around Hamilton’s testing centre at Founders Theatre. There were 337 people tested there on Monday, and 269 at a second centre at Claudelands Events Centre, which opened at noon. Another 148 people got a test at a popup site in O¯ torohanga, where the Auckland community cases stopped at McDonald’s on the way back from a trip to Taranaki.