MORE than 40,000 people have been tested in the Hunter in the past week.
Since news broke of positive COVID-19 cases in the region last week, and the number of exposure sites continue to grow, Hunter residents have flocked to testing centres across the region in a bid to help hunt down the virus.
Demand for testing has led to traffic congestion around COVID clinics, and longer-than-usual waiting times for results.
But from August 2 to 8, there were more than 16,540 people tested for COVID-19 in Lake Macquarie.
Over the same period in Newcastle, there were more than 10,576.
In Port Stephens, 2577 were tested for COVID-19, 6588 were tested in Maitland, and 1850 in Cessnock.
There were 1037 people tested in Singleton.
But Hunter New England said a delay in private pathology clinics uploading their latest testing figures meant the data was "incomplete", and the numbers were likely much higher.
