The government’s health officials are confident that there are no community cases in Niue and to ensure public confidence, starting today and running until Thursday a drive-through covid testing exercise is being done at the Niuefoou hospital.
Director-General of Health and Social Services Gaylene Tasmania says that they want to reassure the public that there is no case in the community and that they are confident that they can contain the single case in MIQ and eliminate the virus in MIQ.
“We want to reassure the public that we are confident that we don’t have any case in the community, we are containing it in MIQ and hope to eliminate it in MIQ.
But we have this opportunity to have this drive-through testing exercise and we have the team who have trained our staff, and this will give them the opportunity to do additional swabbing”, says Mrs. Tasmania.
There is also the situation with the expiring cartridges and this opportunity to use these before they expire in a couple of months.
“We also have cartridges that will be expiring in a couple of months, and we thought, why not use this opportunity” to use the cartridges before they expire.
People can drive around to the back of the hospital from the entrance and drive past the Aged Care Facility through to the Covid testing container shelter set up, especially for Covid testing located at the southern end of the hospital.
As you drive through, you will be met by one of the staff who will take your details and symptoms and refer you to the nurse who will do the swab through the window of your vehicle.
Some vehicles are too high for the nurse to reach the driver, the person is then asked to exit the vehicle and to sit on a chair.
Director-General Gaylene Tasmania says that people should take advantage of this opportunity to get tested.
“We want to reassure people that we do not believe we have a case in the community, but if you think that you might have caught it somehow, please this is an opportunity for you from 10am to 12 midday today, tomorrow, and Thursday and you can just drive through”.
The drive-through testing will run through the same time tomorrow and will end on Thursday.