Covid 19 coronavirus: Woman had to queue for test with other symptomatic people

By Rowan Quinn of RNZ

A woman tested at an Auckland pop-up clinic had to queue in a tent with other symptomatic people - with little social distancing and hardly anyone wearing a mask.

Auckland hit a record number of tests on Wednesday - 7800, with people queuing for hours. Yesterday was also set to be big once numbers were tallied.

The woman, who is an RNZ employee, had her test at the Ōtara pop-up clinic.

After waiting in her car for three hours, she was surprised to be ushered into an open-ended tent.

At one stage there were 12 other people in it. She heard all of them describe their symptoms to the nurse.

"Like coughs, runny noses, headaches, fevers - a couple of people had been to Rotorua at the weekend," she said.

"So as the nurse was working through the people, I was getting more and more concerned that I was in this tent."

The woman was also conscious that she had symptoms too.

It was not possible to stay two metres from the person in front or behind her - but everyone was doing their best to try, she said.

The woman was wearing her own mask as was one other man, and staff offered one woman a mask but no one else was.

She was surprised because of the change in policy to tell Aucklanders they should wear masks.

RNZ has approached the city's district health boards, which collectively run the testing centres, for a response.