Over 52,000 People Tested For COVID-19 In Auckland

An unprecedented community response has seen more than 52,000 COVID-19 swabs taken across metro Auckland since the first positive community case was announced on Tuesday 17 August.

14,000 at community testing centre, around 30,000 at general practice and urgent care clinics and 8,000 by DHBs.

Yesterday was our biggest day ever with more than 24,000 swabs taken across metro Auckland, a 50% increase on our previous biggest day in August last year when we swabbed 16,000 people. And today is on track to be another record day.

Northern Region Health Coordination Centre Lead (and Counties Manukau Health CEO) Fepulea'i Margie Apa thanked everyone involved in the mammoth testing response.

“Testing plays a vital role in managing COVID-19 in our communities. This huge number of tests in such a short space of time highlights the hard work that our testing staff in the Northern Region, community and primary health care staff, including Māori and Pacific providers and Urgent Care Clinics, healthcare workers, laboratory workers and DHB staff have put in to help quickly identify any new cases. I am incredibly proud of everyone involved.

“I also want to thank the public for their patience. The record demand has put enormous pressure on our testing centres and although we are working hard to get new testing centres stood up quickly I know there has been long waits for testing and I want to thank the community for their patience and understanding.”

Ms Apa said the NRHCC had doubled the number of Community Testing Centres in the Auckland metro region over the last three days including a number of pop up centres and more centres are being planned over the next few days, in a bid to increase coverage across the whole region so everyone who needs a test can get one. Extra testing staff have been deployed to the centres and traffic management is in place, supported by police.

Ms Apa thanked the primary care sector for its exceptional contribution to the testing volumes, over two thirds of tests have been done by primary care, and also recognised the incredible efforts of laboratory teams across the city to process samples.

The volume of swabs needing to be processed by laboratories in Auckland has also led to some delays in turn around times for test results. Extra staff have been rostered on to help manage the large number of tests needing to be processed and labs across New Zealand are supporting Auckland laboratories.

Ms Apa said: “I want to thank the DHBs and labs across the country who are helping Auckland respond to this outbreak, we are very grateful for their support.

“As we head into the weekend I encourage people to stay calm and follow our public health advice only get a test if you were in a location of interest at the stated times or you have symptoms. Testing will be available across Auckland this weekend.”

For up-to-date information on testing locations in Auckland, visit www.arphs.health.nz/covid19test. For up-to-date info on all testing locations, visit www.healthpoint.co.nz/covid-19/

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