Hundreds of shoppers lined up at a Queenstown supermarket to become part of a new random COVID-19 testing regime.
The supermarket's drive-thru centre randomly tested 300 workers and shoppers for the virus on Thursday, and it comes as the Government is trying to get a better picture of how the disease is spreading in the regions. It will also help determine whether New Zealand stays at alert level 4 or drops down to level 3.
The Well South CEO says he was pleased with the number of people who showed up to be tested.
"Absolutely overwhelmed by the number of people that have said yes and help us find out as a country how we are going with COVID-19," Andrew Swanson Dobbs says.
Queenstown is one of the country's worst-affected regions with over 80 COVID-19 cases, so the testing will help determine if there is any community transmission.
But nearby on the West Coast, the spread of the virus is limited to just five cases in that region. The Buller District Mayor is calling on the Government to consider looking at lifting restrictions region by region.
"Certainly if the data was suggesting that under level 3 that the only new cases were all in the North Island then it really doesn't make sense to keep the country on the same level," Jamie Cleine says.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is refusing to be drawn if regional restrictions are a possibility.
"It takes one movement. As we saw with the Hereford Bull conference, it started in one place but dispersed itself through the country very, very easily. So these are complex factors we have to take into consideration."
These factors will become clear when the results from regional testing stations come back in the few days' time.
