Frustration, dismay over response to PM’s call for testing in Clover Park

The low uptake of Covid-19 tests in an area identified as a suburb of interest is frustrating, an Auckland councillor says.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called for all Clover Park residents to get tested for Covid-19, whether they were symptomatic or not.

Ardern said there had been enough cases reported in the suburb to encourage officials to act. Clover Park, in Auckland's south, is home to a number of locations of interest and has a population of just under 9000 people.

But figures released by the Northern Region Health Co-ordination Centre (NRHCC) on Monday show just under 24 per cent of the area’s residents have been tested for Covid-19 since September 20.

“I am lost as to why people are being so reluctant. We all genuinely want to get out of alert level 3,” Manukau ward councillor Alf Filipaina said.

“This is about keeping the people you love safe, it’s as simple as that. I don’t want to go into alert level 4 again.”

Filipaina said the figures released by the NRHCC were disappointing.

People were already getting frustrated with lockdown, and the longer it went on, the more likely people would be to breach the restrictions, he said.

That was why people in Clover Park needed to get tested, he said.

“Even if you don’t have any symptoms, go and get tested.”

Papakura GP Dr Primla Khar said many people might feel overloaded by all the information they receive on Covid-19. In areas like south Auckland, many would struggle to keep up with the daily changes to the locations of interest.

When asked why people in areas like Clover Park hadn't been tested, she said it was a complicated issue.

“Have they looked at the locations of interest and said 'all I have to do is get vaccinated'?

“I think there’s a lot of confusion out there and people are making their own personal calls and they may have had a swab before the PM’s call [for people in Clover Park to get tested], so they think they are OK.”

The NRHCC has been sending a limited number of mobile testing units to certain areas where there have previously been cases and encouraging residents to get tested. The mobile teams can also provide Covid-19 vaccinations.

Manukau ward councillor Efeso Collins said increased use of such door-to-door testing in communities like Clover Park might be the key to getting more people tested for Covid-19.

“At a time when health officials are desperate to see more people tested in the area, it's my belief that more people would be tested if there was a concerted effort to connect with people at their front doors,” he said.

Collins said for many south Auckland households, their biggest concerns centred around feeding their children and having enough money to get by.

“When people know that we care about their needs as well, they'll be more open to thinking about getting a Covid test.”

Epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker has said increased door-to-door testing would be a more effective way to get an accurate idea of the scale of the problem in an area like Clover Park.