After a busy start, demand remains steady but has slowed at the two pop-up community testing centres (CTCs) on Auckland’s North Shore.

Wait times at the pop-ups reduced steadily through the morning. At 3pm the wait time in Orewa was under 15 minutes, and at Albany it was around 30 minutes.

Volunteers drawn from the DHB workforce including public health nurse and social workers have been moving through the queues, handing out bottles of water and food, checking on people’s welfare and keeping them up-to-date on current wait times.

Testing staff say members of the public have been in good spirits throughout the day.

Many people had seen coverage of the Northland queues, had come prepared, and were patient, understanding and appreciative even earlier in the morning when wait times were longer.

As well as water and food, traffic management is in place and portaloos and sunblock are being provided at testing stations on the North Shore.

Testing numbers continue to be high. Between Sunday and 3pm today, 14,105 tests from metro Auckland have been processed, all negative aside from the two positive results returned yesterday.

For up-to-date information on testing locations in metro Auckland, visitwww.arphs.health.nz/covid19test

For up-to-date information on all testing locations, please call Healthline (0800 358 5453) or visit www.healthpoint.co.nz/covid-19/

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