New drive through Covid test centre opens in Gympie

Long lines at Gympie’s hospital could soon be a thing of the past with a private pathology throwing open the gates of a new testing centre in the centre of the city.

Gympie pathology 4cyte has opened a new drive through Covid testing clinic at Mellor St.

Gympie’s Covid protection has been given a shot in the arm with a third testing centre opening in the centre of the city.

Pathology company 4cyte, which opened at Gympie Radiology early this year, threw open the gates to its Mellor St drive through testing centre on Monday.

Company business executive Chris Taylor said the centre was driven by the idea – prevention is better than a cure.

“You never know when (an outbreak) will pop up,” Mr Taylor said.

“We might as well have something already running.”

The centre opened Monday and is fully bulk-billed.

It is the third testing centre to open in the region, joining a drive through at Gympie Hospital and a walk-in centre at Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology in Mary St.

The new clinic should alleviate hospital wait times which were reported to be more than an hour long during the state’s latest Covid outbreak.

Mr Taylor said Gympie’s clinic was the latest piece in the company’s push against the pandemic, joining about 10 others recently opened at the Sunshine Coast.

Gympie’s only other drive through centre at the hospital experienced waits times of more than an hour during Queensland’s last outbreak.

“Drive through sites work a lot better than walk-ins,” Mr Taylor said.

The bulk-billed centre is open from 7am-3pm weekdays.

Patients can turn up “with no referral needed”.

Test results take 24-48 hours to return.

The new centre bolsters a regional response to the pandemic which has been criticised in some corners as slow and delayed.

Gympie’s new vaccine hub at the Civic Centre has delivered more than 3700 vaccine doses in the three weeks it has been open.

The exact number of people given at least one dose of either the AstraZeneca of Pfizer vaccines remains unknown.