Covid-19 testing clinics are cutting their openings hours over the Christmas period despite “unprecedented demand” for testing and reports of hours-long wait times in several states.
Guardian Australia analysis shows 77% of the 490 testing sites listed on the New South Wales Health website on Wednesday will either close or operate on reduced hours through the Christmas and new year period.
It comes amid record Covid cases in NSW and the highest testing numbers in Victoria since the beginning of the pandemic.
Victoria reported 92,262 Covid test results on Wednesday, the most processed in a 24-hour period. In Melbourne, overwhelming demand for testing forced at least 14 testing sites across the city to shut from 9.45am after reaching capacity.
They span from the east at Golfers Drive in Chadstone, south-east at Peninsula Health in Frankston and north at Heidelberg Repatriation hospital.
Victoria’s acting premier, James Merlino, who has attributed the surging demand in Victoria to people needing a test to travel interstate for Christmas, urged people to be patient and said for most sites the wait was 40 minutes on average.
Some walk-in clinics, such as St Vincent’s hospital Melbourne, have listed wait times of three hours.
Scott Morrison said on Wednesday travel testing restrictions were placing the heath system under greater pressure. “We’ve all seen the terrible queues and the long waits people have had,” the prime minister said.
“Some 20 to 25% – one in five, one in four – people waiting in those queues are not symptomatic. They’re not a close contact, they’re not even a casual contact, they just want to travel to another state.
“This is putting unnecessary pressure on the testing system and it is redirecting resources away from where there is a better use of in particular in re-establishing the vaccine hubs run by the states and territories.”
Morrison said PCR tests should be used for close contacts and the symptomatic, rather than people wanting to “get on a plane”.
Victorian Covid-19 commander, Jeroen Weimar, made similar comments on Wednesday, saying travel testing requirements were a “bureaucratic reason” for delays. “It is not a highly productive way to use a PCR testing system,” he said.
Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia and the Northern Territory all require fully vaccinated people from several states to provide a negative test result to enter.
The NSW health minister, Brad Hazzard, said “tourism testing” was putting clinics under extreme pressure and has asked other states to reconsider their testing requirements.
But at a press conference, the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, said interstate travel only accounted for 10% of the tests being undertaken in NSW.
“Ten per cent of the lineups are for people who want to get their PCR tests to travel all around Australia, not just Queensland – 90% of people are concerned they have the Omicron variant and want to get tested,” she said.
NSW reported a record 3,763 new Covid cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday from 151,443 tests. Daily testing figures last exceeded 150,000 in the state during the Delta wave of infections in mid-September.
Due to “unprecedented demand”, St Vincent’s hospital Sydney announced it was reducing opening hours at three testing sites from Wednesday. “This will help us to maintain our capacity capability,” it said in a tweet.
Of 490 testing sites listed on the NSW Health website, 378 clinics will either close or operate on reduced hours during the end-of-year period.
Testing lines this morning are pretty wild. This is North Ryde, where cars are backed up onto the M2. Everyone I spoke to is trying to get tests for travel, most aren’t hopeful they will have them in time. These travel requirements are severely clogging the system. @9NewsSyd pic.twitter.com/as4KpnPMoq
— Lauren Tomasi (@LaurenTomasi) December 21, 2021
Lines for Covid testing clinics led to heavy traffic on Wednesday morning in Macquarie Park, Stanmore, Rockdale and West Pennant Hills, according to Live Traffic Sydney.
– with Australian Associated Press
