Covid 19 coronavirus: Wellington testing station staff's online dance challenge

NZ Herald

3 Apr, 2020 12:05 AM2 mins to read

The testing staff dance-off. Photo / Facebook

Covid-19 testing station staff are busting out the moves in a bid to lift the mood.

Testing centres have been set up across New Zealand since the nation went into level-4 lockdown last week.

They contribute significantly to the average 2000 swabs tested each day.

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With the potential of becoming a rather grim environment, a team at a Wellington testing station have stepped in with a fun initiative.

A few members of the admin team last week posted on TikTok a video of them dancing, then more staff, including nurses and runners, got involved.

Filming daily videos under their drive-through marquee, they then put a dance challenge to other testing stations.

Yesterday, the Masterton team posted a response to the video online.

"Our awesome colleagues at the Masterton #covid_19 swabbing clinic just went and stepped it up," the video was captioned on Facebook.

"Love your performances in the midst of this crisis. Hope they go 'viral' in the positive sense of the word," one user wrote on Facebook.

"Test. Test Test. Great teamwork with good spirit bring peace and happiness. Stay safe," another commented.

"Love this, thanks and thanks for doing such an amazing job."

Earlier this week, the Government announced it would soon begin ramping up its covid-19 testing numbers to 5000 a day - a 1300, or 35 per cent, increase on the current 3750 daily testing limit.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the scale of testing was not enough to be able to draw any conclusions about the true extent of community transmission.

Health Minister David Clark said, by next week, the Government would ramp up testing by an extra 500, bringing the daily figure to 4200.

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