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Auckland coronavirus victim says he was 'turned away twice' before being tested, despite symptoms

April 1, 2020

The father of a Marist College student says he was turned away twice before being tested for coronavirus, despite experiencing symptoms.

The Auckland school has the biggest cluster of coronavirus infection that is currently being tracked by health authorities.

Geoff Muliaga Brown has been in hospital because of the virus. He aired his concerns about his experience of the Covid-19 testing process in a video from his Auckland hospital bed.

Mr Brown says the process for testing was “difficult”.

“I’m not going to say it was the easiest. I still think it’s difficult. Testing was made available but you had to meet certain criteria,” he said.

Mr Brown said he felt sick about a week after an event that had taken place at Marist College.

“My personal view is that it shouldn’t be this hard to be tested. I felt sick on the 20th of March and when I mean sick I mean chronically ill, bedridden."

After finding out a teacher at the school had tested positive Mr Brown said he went to try and get a test done.

“I went and got tested and got turned away and I was told at the pop-up station that I didn’t meet the criteria and I wasn't a severe case. To say that I’m not severe is confusing.

“I was turned away twice and that was between a four-day period. I went to try and get looked at and during that time I was deteriorating, getting worse.”

Mr Brown said he ended up getting tested, but had to call Healthline while waiting for his results because his condition worsened.

“I had problems breathing. I was a little worried to tell you the truth,” he said.

“I rung the Heathline again and spoke to person on the phone again and told them my situation.”

He said by then he was in severe pain but still didn’t know what he was sick with.

“It’s not a nice bug. It's a pretty severe virus."

Mr Brown then got called into hospital for further assessment. He said his first test came back negative, but another test came back positive. 

He said he's "not happy" with the testing process, but is now feeling much better. 

Sixty-one new cases of the virus were either confirmed or deemed probable around New Zealand this afternoon, bringing the total to 708.

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