May 20, 2020
No let up in COVID testing
A member of the Maori pandemic response group Te Rōpū Whakakaupapa Urutā says the high level of COVID-19 testing still going on is giving much-needed reassurance.
Yesterday laboratories completed 4,882 tests, bringing the total number of tests completed to date to 238,725.
No new cases of COVID-19 were found.
Dr Rawiri Jansen says while there were some concerns early on about the amount of ethnicity data being collected and whether enough Māori were being tested, but that has largely been resolved.
While the swabbing process can be uncomfortable for some, the overall system is working well, with results coming back from the labs in about 24 hours.
"You can have it done. You're given information about going home and isolating until you've got the result and of course everybody now is getting a result that is negative. We've got zero day after zero-day. We're in a good place with that and people are really grateful they can vet tested. Very reassuring," Dr Jansen says.
Dr Rawiri Jansen.
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