Covid 19 coronavirus: Testing stations open in Northland over long weekend
29 Jan, 2021 04:00 PM
4 minutes to read
Five Covid testing stations will be open across Northland between 10am and 2pm this long weekend.
Photo / Tania Whyte
Imran Ali is a reporter for the Northern Advocateimran.ali@nzme.co.nznorthernadvocat
Covid testing stations will be open across Northland this long weekend and the Government said services would be scaled-up if required, in light of thousands of visitors visiting from outside the region.
Only the testing stations on Winger Cres in Kamo and the one at Ruakākā Race Course were slated to open today but the Northland District Health Board (NDHB) confirmed testing at those venues would be available on all three days over the long weekend.
Harawira earlier said another two checkpoints would be set up from Thursday to educate people heading north this weekend. Tens of thousands of people are expected to travel to the region for Northland and Auckland Anniversary Weekend.
Denise Piper/Stuff
Cars were earlier being stopped at a checkpoint in Waiomio and drivers are being given information about the new South African variant of Covid-19. Whiu, who is Northland police’s acting district commander, said with the country still at alert level 1, there is no need for any checkpoints. “Police engaged with the group when attempts were made to prevent traffic flowing. The group willingly complied with Police and they left the area a short time later,” he said.
“Through Tend we can provide flexibility, doctors can work from home or 20 hours a week,” she said. Robinson did not disclose how many patients Tend had, citing commercial sensitivity, but mentioned that there had been more than a couple of thousand downloads of the Tend app.
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Co-founders of Tend, Cecilia Robinson and James Robinson, decided to create their own healthcare clinic to innovate healthcare and make it more flexible. She said the company was also interested in expanding into pharmacies, mental and midwifery services. Infratil’s chief executive Marko Bogoievski also joined Tend as a director and shareholder, owning about 14 per cent of the business.
Covid 19 coronavirus: Northlanders denied tests after conflicting Healthline advice
26 Jan, 2021 06:51 PM
6 minutes to read
The director general of health has today apologised for long queues that has dogged Covid-testing stations in Northland over the past two days.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield told the AM Show while thousands heeded the call to get tested many ended up waiting hours. I want to thank those who went and got tested. Many of them had to wait quite a long time for that test. Thanks for their patience. I apologise for that and we ll be looking at ways we can reduce those queues in the future.