The Bay of Plenty District Health Board has completed the COVID-19 testing of all Port of Tauranga high priority workers – in advance of the Ministry of Health deadline.

BOPDHB Incident Controller Dr Joe Bourne said close to 720 high priority port workers had been tested at the dedicated testing facility since midday, Monday 17 August 2020.

"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.

"We would also like to acknowledge the phenomenal effort and commitment of the team at Pathlab who are going above and beyond to process COVID-19 swabs for port surveillance and the rest of the community."

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."

Testing for border workforce groups under Information on who should be assessed and how to get tested.

© Scoop Media