Northern Advocate
  • Northern Advocate home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings

Locations

  • Far North
  • Kaitaia
  • Kaikohe
  • Bay of Islands
  • Whangārei
  • Kaipara
  • Mangawhai
  • Dargaville

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whangārei
  • Dargaville

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Northern Advocate

Covid 19 coronavirus: Iwi clocks up 300-plus virus tests in Kaikohe

By Peter de Graaf
Reporter·Northern Advocate·
3 May, 2020 09:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

An illuminated road sign outside Kaikohe's drive-through Community-Based Assessment Centre. Photo / Peter de Graaf

An illuminated road sign outside Kaikohe's drive-through Community-Based Assessment Centre. Photo / Peter de Graaf

More than 850 people have so far visited an iwi-run Covid-19 station in Kaikohe with just over 300 swabbed for the virus.

The drive-through Community-Based Assessment Centre is open seven days a week and is operated by health provider Te Hau Ora o Ngāpuhi on behalf of Te Rūnanga-a-iwi o Ngāpuhi.

Testing is done in a marquee next to the rūnanga's headquarters on Mangakahia Rd.

From April 3 until closing time on Wednesday 854 people visited the centre, 302 of whom were swabbed to check for the virus.

Te Hau Ora o Ngāpuhi nurse Rhonda Zielinski welcomes a patient at Kaikohe's drive-through Community-Based Assessment Centre. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Te Hau Ora o Ngāpuhi nurse Rhonda Zielinski welcomes a patient at Kaikohe's drive-through Community-Based Assessment Centre. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

READ MORE:
• Covid-19 coronavirus: Weekend testing to begin, Northland tally up to 18
• Covid 19 coronavirus: Kaikohe supermarket staffer tests positive
• Covid 19 coronavirus: More testing in isolated Northland communities
• Covid 19 coronavirus: Testing to increase in Northland, particularly among Māori, with one new case

Nurse Rhonda Zielinski said Kaikohe had clocked up the highest number of tests in Northland after Whangārei.

Tests were initially carried out by the district health board at its Rankin St base but it wasn't well attended so the rūnanga's interim boss, Te Rōpu Poa, put her hand up and pulled together a team.

''We've had a really good response. People like the fact they can turn up here and know us from other walks of life because we live here. It makes a difference when you have your own looking after your own,'' Zielinski said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Te Hau Ora o Ngapuhi nurse Rhonda Zielinski at Kaikohe's drive-through Community-Based Assessment Centre. Photo / Peter de Graaf
Te Hau Ora o Ngapuhi nurse Rhonda Zielinski at Kaikohe's drive-through Community-Based Assessment Centre. Photo / Peter de Graaf

Ngāpuhi's assessment centre had also been the catalyst for other iwi around Northland to set up their own testing stations.

The busiest days at Kaikohe came after a staff member at the town's New World supermarket was found to have Covid-19. That news was reported on the evening of Saturday, April 4; on Sunday 153 people turned up, of whom 30 were swabbed. The numbers were similar on the Monday and Tuesday.

''We had three really busy days because that caused a lot of worry for whānau. A good proportion had shopped at New World but weren't sick so we reassured them and sent them away with information,'' Zielinski said.

Generally only people with symptoms were tested though the Health Ministry's criteria changed regularly.

Discover more

75% of North's Covid-19 cases recovered

28 Apr 07:00 PM

Northland leaders back Go Local! campaign

28 Apr 05:00 PM

No easing off until all sectors are safely back on stream

28 Apr 11:00 PM

Nine Northlanders under investigation for Covid-19 infection

29 Apr 06:00 PM

''But at the end of the day we make a clinical decision on site. If someone has driven up from Awarua to be tested, even if they've got no symptoms, I'm still going to swab them.''

NorthlandTesting
NorthlandTesting

People who arrive at the centre are stopped at the entrance where a nurse decides if they need to come in or can be sent away with advice and reassurance.

If they need to be tested they answer a series of questions at the next stop then drive to the marquee, the only point where they get out of their vehicle.

They are ushered in by a nurse clad in full protective gear who takes a nasal swab. The whole process is over in minutes.

Zielinksi said a marquee, with its circulating air, was safer for staff than an enclosed room.

Te Hau Ora o Ngāpuhi had also run pop-up clinics at Tautoro, outside New World and on Hongi St, and did home visits for elderly patients afraid to leave their bubbles.

Staff were working closely with the health board which had set a cabin next door to deliver flu shots.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

By taking over virus testing in Kaikohe, the iwi had freed up health board staff to carry out contact tracing and other Covid-19 related work, she said.

The health board does not release the numbers of positive Covid-19 tests by location but the Advocate understands at least four people in Kaikohe have been found to have the virus.

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Northern Advocate

Northern Advocate
|Updated

Two charged with neglect 10 years after 4yo's death in Kaikohe

Northern Advocate
|Updated

Major water leak forces school closure for urgent repairs

Northern Advocate

Saving lives: Mobile AED startup named best emerging business


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Northern Advocate

Two charged with neglect 10 years after 4yo's death in Kaikohe
Northern Advocate
|Updated

Two charged with neglect 10 years after 4yo's death in Kaikohe

Police have continued their investigation since Alestra Kepa-Hati's death in 2015.

17 Jul 02:17 AM
Major water leak forces school closure for urgent repairs
Northern Advocate
|Updated

Major water leak forces school closure for urgent repairs

17 Jul 01:26 AM
Saving lives: Mobile AED startup named best emerging business
Northern Advocate

Saving lives: Mobile AED startup named best emerging business

16 Jul 11:00 PM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • The Northern Advocate e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Northern Advocate
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The Northern Advocate
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP