Kate Hawkesby: Ambitious goal to test 70,000 for Covid 19 coronavirus

COMMENT

I see the Government has set another lofty goal - which some are worried won't be achieved.

This time it's testing - 70,000 tests by next week.

But the problem is, demand for testing has dropped, despite the Government's catchphrase "say yes to the test".

Pop up testing stations were set up after the South Auckland cluster was announced, to try to help deal with the huge spike in demand for tests. But it seems all that demand has now died down.

One report claimed one testing station had just 15 people turn up for a test yesterday - and remember this is down from hundreds. All those queues of cars and people waiting hours for a test are gone.

So the concern now is that the Government's goal won't be met. Some nurses at the stations are reported as saying they think the goal is too big, and that people have become complacent. They're probably right. There seems to be a general complacency sweeping over this whole Covid response now.

I think we've lost our appetite for it all.

Lockdown 2.0 has baffled and confused many, lots of people are over it, there seems less buy-in this time.

And on top of that, we have been given mixed messages. Test only if you're symptomatic, actually no, now everybody test, wait, no, just those who're really sick. The goalpost keeps changing. Understandably, people would be confused.

They say there's stigma around getting tested and potentially having a positive test. I'd like to think that's not the case anymore, but maybe it is. Or maybe the lethargy's just kicked in and we can no longer be bothered?

Kate Hawkesby. Photo / Michael Craig

None of this disinterest in testing is putting off Dr Ashley Bloomfield though, who still believes thousands more tests are achievable of course, but that's what worries me here.
We have a ministry which seems to be repeatedly out of touch with reality on so many issues around testing, tracing, distribution and supply.

We've learned time and time again that what they think in theory will happen or might happen, often is not the case.

We've also learned that a lot of what they say is happening, from the pulpit of truth at the 1pm press briefings, is also not the case.

So it's hard to know why lofty goals keep being set from behind desks in bureaucrats' offices, when out on the streets, the reality is quite different.