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1 NEWS understands multiple police officers have been at the scene since at least 2pm today.
Cars have lined up around the block to get to the testing station, with occupants waiting upwards of 30 minutes to get swabbed.
Workers at the testing station have been overrun and one told 1 NEWS it’s been swarmed with people all day.
One man says he’s been waiting in traffic for an hour and 15 minutes so he could get tested, after coming down with a runny nose.
Another woman, who had been waiting for more than an hour and had a sore throat and sniffly nose, says she wanted to be tested as a precaution before visiting a rest home tomorrow.
A police officer at the scene says they were called in after reports of road rage incidents.
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Newshub can reveal another serious blunder by health officials who have failed to follow their own rules.
A group of around 10 people, who were in quarantine in Christchurch, were allowed out early to attend a burial with more than 150 people on Tuesday.
That’s despite the Ministry of Health announcing nine days ago that such exemptions were no longer permitted – leaving a funeral director and his team thoroughly perplexed.
A day prior, they had hosted a room full of 200 mourners. Health officials informed his staff that 10 of those attending would be coming part-way through their stay in quarantine.
“It was a surprise to us that people who were still in quarantine were going to be allowed to attend a funeral,” funeral director and Lamb and Hayward Group CEO Steve Parkyn told Newshub.
“There’s nothing in that that has any common sense to it.”
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The latest coronavirus case in New Zealand stayed at two isolation or quarantine hotels in Auckland.
The man, in his 60s, is in the Jet Park Hotel near Auckland airport, a quarantine facility for those who have Covid-19 symptoms.
He arrived in New Zealand on June 13 on a flight from Australia, having two days earlier flown from Pakistan to Doha then on to Melbourne.
Health director general Ashley Bloomfield said the man was wearing a mask on all flights, and authorities are now contacting all passengers on the Air New Zealand flight from Australia.
On arrival in New Zealand, the man was not symptomatic and checked into another hotel near Auckland airport, the Naumi, for managed isolation, Bloomfield said.
The man developed symptoms a few days ago.
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New Zealand puts Covid-19 quarantine in hands of military after border fiasco
Wed 17 Jun 2020 04.14 BST
Last modified on Wed 17 Jun 2020 10.21 BST
The New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has branded as an “unacceptable failure” a quarantine blunder that meant two arrivals from Britain left managed isolation in New Zealand without being tested for the coronavirus – which they were later diagnosed with.
“It should never have happened and it cannot be repeated,” Ardern said on Wednesday, adding that the defence force would now oversee the quarantine of new arrivals and audit the quarantine process.
Ardern also said she would temporarily remove the compassionate exemption under which the pair, who are New Zealand nationals, were released from quarantine early.
Health officials are tracing 320 people who are regarded as “close contacts” of the women, and they will be urged to get tested. Close contacts could include passengers on their flight to New Zealand and other quarantined travellers at their Auckland hotel, as well as hotel staff and flight crew. The women were now in isolation with a relative, officials said.
Ardern said the new cases did not change New Zealand’s Covid-free status. “Our definition always assumed there would be cases at the border,” she said.
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On Wednesday, Ardern said the dispensations would be halted until a “disciplined and rigorous” process was in place to manage them, even though the move would be “upsetting” to some New Zealanders.
“I cannot allow the gains we have all made to be squandered by processes not being upheld,” she said. Ardern added that the government had come under pressure from many quarters, “including the courts” to relax the quarantine rules. “It may be a hard and unpopular decision to take, but it is the right one for the country,” she said.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/17/new-zealand-brings-in-military-after-covid-19-quarantine-fiasco?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_b-gdnnews&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1592364947
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https://twitter.com/NewshubBreaking/status/1273067300153774080?s=19
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weehingthong 