COVID-19 testing

Beijing kicks off mass testing after spike in Covid cases

The Chaoyang district reported 26 cases over the weekend - the highest number so far in Beijing's latest surge.

Long queues outside supermarkets and shops were seen despite government assurances there is sufficient food.

It comes amid fears that Beijing could face a similar situation to Shanghai, which has seen some 25 million people shut in their homes for weeks.

'All the meat was snatched up'

NZ-based Tonga church hosts pop-up Covid-19 testing station

PMN News reports the testing site at the Lotofale'ia Mangere Tongan Methodist Church was available from 9am until 6pm.

Superintendent of the Vahefonua Tonga o Aotearoa, Tevita Finau, said he wanted his church to host a testing station "for accessibility, for people in the area to be able to go somewhere they're familiar with".  ​​

He also believes with Pacific people being the most affected in this second outbreak, they need to take advantage of the free testing available.

Auckland councillor Efeso Collins calls for amnesty for people with expired visas

 

Health Minister Chris Hipkins said the government would not use any information collected through testing for immigration purposes.

"Regardless of your personal circumstances, if you're asked to get a test or you're in that group that's at greater risk, we won't use that information to punish you in some other way - and I can't state that enough," Hipkins said.

However Collins, who represents Manukau ward, said Pacific people remained fearful of getting tested because of what had happened historically to people who overstayed their visas, such as dawn raids.

WHO chief calls for tenfold increase in funding for COVID-19 treatments

"The coming three months present a crucial window of opportunity to scale out the impact of the ACT [Access to COVID-19 Tools] accelerator for global impact," Dr Tedros said on Monday.

"However to exploit this window, we have to fundamentally scale up the way we are funding the ACT Accelerator and prioritise the use of new tools.

"There is a vast global gap between our ambition for the ACT accelerator, and the amount of funds that have been committed."

Waiting game as Pacific lags on Covid19 testing

Although only a handful of New Zealand's Pacific neighbours were able to do such testing there were plans to change that.

Anyone who's had the Covid-19 test in New Zealand had their results back within a day or two.

For Pacific neighbours, including the Cook Islands, Samoa and Tonga, that wait for results can take a week or more.

Covid-19 testing requires laboratory facilities which only exist in five Pacific locations, including Fiji and Papua New Guinea.