Testing of Tauranga port workers for Covid-19 on track for deadline, Health Board says

The Bay of Plenty District Health Board says it has already met its target for testing all Port of Tauranga high priority workers by midnight tonight.

In a statement today, the BOPDHB says it has completed the Covid-19 testing of all Port of Tauranga high priority workers – ahead of the Ministry of Health's deadline.

Anyone who has been at the Port of Tauranga since 11.59 pm on Tuesday 21 July is required by law to get tested for Covid-19.

This testing would help determine whether the virus may have come to New Zealand from the port and maritime community.

This included everyone who has worked at the port, including shipping agents, stevedores, cargo delivery drivers, contractors, suppliers of goods and services, classification societies, government agency employees and any crew members who may have come ashore.

BOPDHB Incident Controller Dr Joe Bourne said close to 720 high priority port workers had been tested at the dedicated testing facility since midday on Monday.

"We scaled up our on-site testing capacity at the Port of Tauranga on Tuesday, and the team has done an amazing job testing the high priority workers.

"We would like to thank all the port workers for their cooperation during this time. We would also like to acknowledge Ngāi te Rangi, the Port of Tauranga and its associated companies along with our primary health organisations, for their help.

Dr Bourne said the DHB would continue to have a presence at the Port of Tauranga during the next few days for other port workers who wish to be tested.

"We will also be making sure that anyone associated with the Port of Tauranga who is required to have ongoing surveillance testing will have easy access to do so. This may be through testing onsite at the port and with other providers in the community."

The Ministry of Health told 1 NEWS tests will take 24 hours to process with the aim to get results to people within 48 hours, with any positive results prioritised.