Pretty damn good testing

I’ve just been tested for Covid-19 (I was negative) and have to say I was impressed with the process, and the speed of it all.

I’ve had a cough and some tightness when breathing for a few weeks. As I hadn’t had a fever over 38 degrees I didn’t meet the criteria for a test. They relaxed the criteria late last week so that if you have any of the symptoms, rather than all of them, you qualify for a test.

My partner had been coughing also so we thought we’d ring up Healthline for advice. This was after 9 pm on a Friday night. Got through quickly to someone. She said she would get a health professional to ring us back as we needed a clinical assessment. We got a call back around 10 pm. As my partner was asleep then I asked if they could call back after 7.30 am Saturday. They did. I missed the call, but they then called back again at 8.30 am. We both answered some questions and they advised up we should get tested and gave us a phone number for testing at Keneperu Hospital.

Called them around 8.45 am and they took down some details and said we could get tested at 10.40 am. Turned up and only had to wait 5 – 10 minutes. Stayed in the car and they asked some questions and then took the swab, and we were out of there just after 11 am.

And then we got the results the next day, on Sunday afternoon.

There were definite issues around the testing early on, but I have to say they seemed to be operating pretty smoothly now, at least for us. To ring Healthline late on a Friday night and to have test results by Sunday afternoon is really impressive.