ACT Health authorities have told people not currently in line for a Covid test at the EPIC testing site to stay home and return at the weekend, with some drivers currently in line already having waited up to nine hours.
Testing sites have been under intense pressure since Canberra was sent into a snap seven-day lockdown on Thursday. There are currently six known active cases of Covid in the ACT.
"If you're currently in the queue to be tested, you will be tested, however there are currently long waits as we manage this demand," ACT Health said.
"If you haven't already joined the queue to be tested, please come for testing tomorrow. We don't want you waiting in your cars or outside in the cold until the early hours of the morning."
Residents were sent home from testing sites late on Thursday night after waiting for up to eight hours.
The long wait continued into Friday. One woman said she arrived at EPIC at 7.30am and still had an hour to go at 4pm.
She said several cars around her had broken down and needed to be jump-started.
ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said authorities were looking to pull resources from other parts of the health system to boost capacity.
"No jurisdiction has been able to ramp up testing capacity to meet the demand that they see on the day, or the couple of days, following a new case," she said.
A new drive-through COVID-19 testing clinic at Brindabella Business Park opened from 8am on Friday, while a pop-up testing centre will soon be established for people potentially in contact with a 14-year-old Gold Creek School student who tested positive for the virus on Friday morning.
About 2000 people are expected to be tested at the Gold Creek site.
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