‘Ready and able’ to ramp up testing despite long queues

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath says authorities are well equipped to cope with a Christmas surge in demand for Covid testing, despite a number of public clinics closing over the Christmas break.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath insists authorities are “ready and able” to cope with a continued surge in demand following confusion over a number of testing clinics closing over the Christmas break.

The state again recorded a surge of new Covid-19 cases on Friday as Queenslanders wait in long lines outside pathology clinics in Brisbane.

But Ms D’Ath said authorities won’t be impacted despite a number of sites closing over the coming days.

Instead, Queenslanders will be able to access private clinics at no expense.

“We have waived the referrals for all private pathologists so people will be able to go to public or private pathologists to get tests over the Christmas period,” she said.

Health Minister Yvette D’Ath says there will be “many places” to get tested over the Christmas period. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

“There will be some private pathologists who will not be operating, on Christmas or Boxing Day for example, so please check the update on the website.

“But there will still be many places you can go to and get tested and we ask people to do that.”

Ms D’Ath said there was capacity to increase access to testing if demand continued to surge.

“We are ready and able to set up more pop-up testing clinics, to expand the ones that we already have — such as more lanes for drive-thru — and to extend hours,” the Health Minister said.

“Of course the lines aren’t consistent everywhere and every time we announce a new area for tests we see a surge in those particular areas, so we will monitor that closely.”