Northland residents have waited up to three and a half hours to get a Covid test this morning after the discovery of a community case in the region.
Video / Adam Pearse
Confusion is evident at Covid testing sites, with some people who were told to get tested by Healthline being turned away from the queue by officials.
Some are waiting for several hours before being turned away.
Ruakākā resident Maylene Erihe and her two daughters Lily May Green and Macylea Green were this morning turned away from the new racecourse testing site - despite visiting the same shops as the Covid positive woman and being told by Healthline to go to a testing station.
Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield has said only those with symptoms, or who visited the sites the infected woman did, should seek a test.
Erihe said she was told by health staff that she would not be tested as she was at a store about an hour after the Covid case had been at the FreshChoice and the general store.
Erihe said health workers told her she would have been tested if she had been at those premises within half an hour of the Covid positive case. None of the whānau were symptomatic.
A public health nurse said today's prioritisation measures were not implemented yesterday because they didn't have enough staff. When pressed further on what the exact specifications were deciding who could and couldn't get tested, she declined to comment.
Ruakākā resident Marlene Erihe and her two daughters Lily May Green (centre) and Macylea Green. Photo / NZ Herald
Their two-hour wait this morning followed a four-hour long wait at the refinery testing station yesterday.
Having been caught out yesterday with no food or water, Erihe had packed plenty of supplies and games only to be turned away. Erihe, a social worker who worked in schools, said she would now be forced to take a third day off to try to get tested through her GP tomorrow.
"It's frustrating, there's always so many mistakes anyway, I just don't trust the judgment on them saying 30 minutes."
More people are being turned away from getting a test
Taff Johnstone had been in contact with people who served the Covid positive woman and went into the same stores, but was told he did not qualify for a test.
He had been sick since Saturday with the sweats and sore muscles and, after arriving at work this morning, the 26-year-old builder was told by his boss to get a test after his fellow employees expressed concern.
Johnstone felt annoyed that he had waited more than two hours to be tested only to be turned around. "I just want to get back to work and pay my mortgage off."
Johnstone was currently working at the Bream Bay retirement village.
Shar Menary, along with her grandmother, mum and nephew were turned away after being told they didn't have proof they were at the same stores as the Covid positive women.
Menary, who visited the FreshChoice, Orrs Pharmacy and Bream Bay butchers, said they didn't scan into the premises and didn't have any other proof her whānau had been there.
Having taken a day off work, Menary said she probably wouldn't be able to go back to work given her contact.
"We don't have proof so we don't know what to do."
Ashley Bloomfield has said there would be testing waits in some places. There were 17 sites up and running in the region which were swabbing people for Covid.
"We want people to be tested."
Bloomfield said there was always an increase in the volume of people waiting for tests when something like this happened.
He recommended people took water with them and something to eat.
The Covid-positive woman felt very mild symptoms on January 15. She did not associate those symptoms with Covid, but once they worsened she got a test.
The woman was currently at home, and did not need hospital care.
