COVID-19 testing sites at Gold Creek and Erindale have opened to the Canberra public, as Friday morning marks a significant drop in wait times.
The surge site at Erindale Active Leisure Centre was opened on Thursday for priority testing of close contacts but has since been made publicly available.
The Gold Creek pop-up site, which was established to get through thousands of people affected by the exposure sites at the Gold Creek School, has also been opened to the public.
There was no wait at both those sites on Friday afternoon.
Children can be tested at both those sites and the Weston Creek walk-in centre, which was previously the only place kids under eight could be taken for a swab.
Deputy chief health officer Vanessa Johnston said on Thursday people aged 17 and under made up 43 per cent of infections in the territory.
At this stage, you should only get tested if you have been notified by ACT Health that you are a close or casual contact or you have COVID-19 symptoms.
— ACT Health (@ACTHealth) August 19, 2021
You can find the full list of testing clinics in the ACT here: https://t.co/UQrvLv7xvW
The Weston site also had no wait time at 1.30pm Friday.
The drive-through sites at Kambah, EPIC and Brindabella Business Park are also moving quickly with a wait of just five to 10 minutes.
It is a steep decline from the wait of up to 12 hours experienced when the lockdown first set in.
Huge queues formed at testing sites for the first few days of the pandemic which has now slowed as more sites are brought on board.
However the ACT's health workforce is under immense pressure with hundreds in isolation due to a growing list of exposure sites.
A call out for retired nurses and those with a background in the profession has been met by hundreds but it's not enough to meet the skyrocketing demand for tests and vaccines.
