Saliva testing will now be available to over 1400 of New Zealand’s border workers as the Government expands the less-invasive test into its regime at key frontline facilities.
The saliva test will be used in combination with the nasopharyngeal swab, which Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said remained “the gold standard for testing”.
Hipkins said from June, workers who have to be testing weekly for Covid-19 “can choose to be part of a regime of multiple saliva tests, and a single nasopharyngeal swab each fortnight”.
“Border workers do tell us about a level of discomfort when they have to have a nasopharyngeal swab once a week and, with the border workforce now being vaccinated, they feel more protected and less likely to get infected — but are also less likely to be symptomatic if they do,” Hipkins said.
“The addition of more frequent saliva testing is designed to address this. Expert advice is that will work well in detecting any cases in border workers when it’s carried out at an increased frequency and appropriately complemented by nasopharyngeal swabs.”
Hipkins said the combination of the two tests plus an almost fully vaccinated border workforce will make the border secure.
“Extensive due diligence has been completed and we are now satisfied that a combination of the two tests, along with frontline managed isolation workers being very close to being fully vaccinated, will continue to provide the assurances we need,” Hipkins said.
Compliance will be monitored by the register, with officials to monitor the progress of the saliva testing programme.
Workers will be able to choose to continue doing a weekly nasal swab.
New Zealand had administered a total of 562,149 doses of the Covid vaccine, with a total of 191,106 second doses having been completed, health officials announced today.
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