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New Zealand’s first “sentinel” test for the coronavirus began in Queenstown with more than 340 people volunteering for the sample.
Authorities hope the tests will shed light on whether there is any community transmission in the resort town. Similar tests planned for several other Covid-19 hotspots, including Waikato, Auckland, and Canterbury.
WellSouth primary healthcare organization asked symptom-free random shoppers to volunteer at an established center in the Pak’n Save parking lot.
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A buyer is screened for coronavirus at the Pak’n Save parking lot in Queenstown.
Chief Executive Andrew Swanson-Dobbs said 343 people “happily” volunteered for the swabs to help the country discover if it was ready to go from alert level four to three.
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The Ministry of Health (MOH) called around 2.30 p.m. Wednesday to ask if he could set up random tests for at least 300 people, he said, and for 4.15 p.m. Pak’n Save had agreed to use their parking lot. Civil Defense organized containers and generators, and a list of about 30 volunteer health workers was organized.
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More than 300 people volunteered to take the test.
The first person, Queenstown Pak’n Save owner Anthony King, was evaluated at approximately 10:30 a.m. and they called him one day at approximately 4:30 p.m. after exceeding the goal of 300 tests.
Swanson-Dobbs said what the public, doctors and others who had helped had done was “surprising.”
Director-General for Health, Dr. Ashley Bloomfield, said the randomized tests were to “inform our understanding and build a picture of whether there is any community broadcast in Queenstown.”
“It was one of the areas of concern, and we are also actively looking at two or three other places in the country where this will happen.”
A Ministry of Health spokeswoman said that DHBs in Queenstown, Waikato, Auckland and Canterbury were arranging for teams to go out to the community with mobile testing clinics to provide more information about community transmission in these regions.
“These additional tests and targeted tests will add to the total set of tests performed, giving us greater confidence in our data and our overall picture of Covid-19 in New Zealand.”
She said the ministry has pledged to investigate and increase measures, including testing and surveillance, to help eliminate Covid-19 in New Zealand.
As of Thursday, 70,160 tests had been conducted across the country.
New Zealand has 1,401 confirmed or suspected Covid-19 cases, of which 15 were new in the last day.
Nine people died, including six from a Christchurch rest home, while 770 recovered from the virus.
