Premier Steven Marshall insists on ‘massive increase in capacity’ for Covid-19 testing sites

After another day where demand for Covid tests far outstripped resources with 12-hour waits in cars, four new testing sites are opening across Adelaide.

Authorities “need to do a much better job” of managing the surge in demand for coronavirus tests, Premier Steven Marshall says, as people waited upwards of 12 hours for a swab in recent days.

This morning four new testing locations were announced, at Mile End, Warradale, Para Hills and Harbourtown, in a bid to dramatically reduce wait times.

Health Minister Stephen Wade said the Warradale site, at the Army Barracks, would offer tests strictly to emergency services personnel including police officers and health staff, and would open Friday.

The Mile End site, at Netball SA, is set to open by the weekend. It will provide extra capacity, protection from the weather, and the ability to cover other sites if they need to close.

The Para Hills site, on Peacock Rd, will open until midnight Friday and Saturday, and Harbourtown will be open from 7am until 5pm Friday.

Other sites will also have increased testing hours: WaterWorld Ridgehaven, Aldinga, Hampstead and the Repat will be open until 7.30pm and Port Adelaide will open until 5pm.

Cars line up for hours at the Victoria Park testing station. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

The new sites will employ staff from the Australian Defence Force.

He said the lines for the Victoria Park site were much shorter this morning with about 40 cars in the queue.

“We’re certainly really appreciative of the thousands of South Australians who have taken the advice of their public health team and are going to get tested,” he told Adelaide radio stations this morning.

“We’re really regretful for the delays that have been experienced but with the added capacity with the additional clinics, we think we’re getting on top of it.”

A new “priority risk”, invitation-only Covid testing site was launched at Lot Fourteen in the city’s East End on Thursday for those in quarantine who visited exposure locations.

The testing site was only open to those referred by the Communicable Diseases Control Branch until a roof leak forced its closure on Thursday morning. The branch is looking for another site.

A testing site has also been opened at Ridgehaven for people who have been in direct contact with positive cases.

On Thursday Mr Stevens claimed a testing record of 17,592 swabs, despite records showing 19,205 were done on November 20.

He insisted there would be a “massive increase in capacity” at testing stations and said “we are doing everything we can”.

The government was investigating “every single site” to “flex and surge their capacity”, Mr Marshall said – opening up the possibility of opening hours being extended at some clinics.

He expected a reduction in the number of people who had come from NSW and Victoria requiring tests would ease demand. SA Pathology is also ramping up the number of testing staff.

“What we have seen is an incredible surge in demand in a very short period of time,” Mr Marshall said.

“Now we’ve also seen a great response in terms of SA Pathology, but demand … has completely outstripped the capacity we provided yesterday.”

He also admitted that “we need to do a much better job at telling people about the likely wait times” at testing clinics and that police were looking at how they could provide information to people in line.

A digital booking system to get tested was also being investigated.

The government has requested 36 defence force personnel to assist with testing and has redeployed people from local health networks.

Waiting times remained about 12 hours at Victoria Park, and several hours at other sites including Blair Athol on Thursday.

There were similar scenes at testing stations on Tuesday and Wednesday.

There were also reports of a lack of traffic management and motorists jumping queues.

Covid drive-through pop-up testing site at Gould Road, Elizabeth Park. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

Many had arrived at Victoria Park on Wednesday night and waited through the early hours of Thursday morning – still waiting to be tested well after sunrise.

Nicole Ng, who had been waiting 10 hours, said she had a little sleep during the night but it was “really hard because you always have to be alert to move forward or you’ll jam up people behind you”.

“I really appreciate them getting all of us tested but I really wish there weren’t 600 of us waiting overnight,” Ms Ng said. “We called up a few (other testing clinics) but they close before 12am or they don’t take people without a Medicare card, so we only had one option.”

Stan deBruin was forced to drive to Victoria Park from Mt Barker on Wednesday night as his local testing station closed in the evening. He was still waiting to be tested after 11 hours and had not slept.

“I got on the end of the line on Greenhill Rd at 9.30pm and we’ve been slowly snaking our way round,” Mr deBruin said.

Meanwhile, only a small number of portaloos were provided at Victoria Park, with some in need of a clean.

Samantha Prime said the toilet was “a bit messy” and “there’s paper everywhere in there and mud and water”. Despite the lack of toilets, there was no line-up for the loo.

Motorists awaiting tests on Port Rd reported queues around the block from 7am.

“My guess is 400 cars – and the joint doesn’t open for another hour,” one person said. An hour later, they reported “moving 20 car spots”.

In Gawler, a new pop-up Clinpath testing site opened at Trinity College at 7am. But less than 90 minutes after opening, the school posted on Facebook that many cars in the queue were “unlikely” to reach the testing site before it closed, so people needed to go elsewhere.