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Andrew Dickens: Why was the MoH planning to reduce community testing?

Author
Andrew Dickens,
Publish Date
Tue, 23 Jun 2020, 4:41PM
One Covid-19 testing facility. (Photo / NZ Herald)

Andrew Dickens: Why was the MoH planning to reduce community testing?

Author
Andrew Dickens,
Publish Date
Tue, 23 Jun 2020, 4:41PM

So finally we have a number.

2159 quarantiners left their Covid quarantine between  June 9th and 16th.  No-one is quite sure how many of them got a final test.  So to be safe, let’s presume none did.

That’s quite a few when you considered we’ve had 16 and a half thousand quarantiners.  That’s an eighth who might not have got a final sign off

When asked if he was worried the Director General of health said the 2159 posed a very, very low risk to the community because they'd completed the 14 days of isolation which is the incubation period of the virus. This is what the Prime Minister has been saying for a week now.

But that’s all fine unless the quarantiners are exposed to the virus while they’re in isolation.

It’s the mingling I wonder about.

Every day new people arrive and go into isolation and overlap with people who have already got some days under their belt.  And there have been many stories of different cohorts hanging together in room parties.  I’ve seen it happening on exercise routines on closed off wharves.

The Director can’t guarantee to me that a Day 2 guy didn’t give it to a Day 13 girl in 2100 cases because there was no test.

I’m sure this is me being a bit paranoid and over cautious but as I understand it that’s exactly the way you beat virus spread.

But the bit about this that really freaks me out is that DHB’s and GPs have been scaling down the community testing outlets.

Plans to close Wellington’s Covid-19 community testing centres this week have been ditched today because of the rising number of overseas cases.

A testing centre in Karori had been swabbing about six people a day before last week’s new cases. They were now swabbing up to 50, he said.

A doctor from the centre said we’re seeing two things now. We’re seeing coughs and colds starting to appear in general practice and, with these border breaches, we’re seeing confidence has been shaken as well.  So people are coming back to swabbing.

But here’s my thing.  Why on earth was the local DHB looking to close testing centres in the first place?

Testing centres in Waikato were closed a week and a half ago.  What’s the point in that?

You can still get tested if you’re concerned at your local GPs.  But it’s well reported that GP practices are already in financial strife and it’s a real cost to have a nurse in full PPE ready and waiting to swab the concerned. So that’s disappearing too.

But what’s the mantra?  Test test test.  So why reduce capacity?  It’s like the DHBs think this thing is over when we all know it’s only just begun.

It’s another example of the disconnect in our health system that was highlighted in last week’s Simpson report.  The Ministry can say one thing but the DHBs go ahead and do whatever they think is right.

I have one message for Ashley and Minister Clark: keep the community testing going.

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