Meet the Covid testers battling rain and scorching heat to test 3000 people a day

Ever wondered what it’s like testing Covid patients at one of Sydney’s most popular testing sites? Here’s a day in the life of frontline hero Julie McGrath.

They are the frontline angels working around the clock to swab the nation’s nostrils and throats at Covid-19 testing clinics, risking their own safety amid extreme weather and queue rage.

Team leader Julie McGrath and her team of six swabbers at St Vincent’s Bondi Covid-19 drive-through testing clinic don head-to-toe personal protective equipment (PPE) that turns the 30C sunshine into a 45C inferno as they start swabbing lanes of people waiting for answers.

As supervisor, Ms McGrath said she walks about 12km to 15km a day with a total of 30 minutes to sit down as her team swabs up to 3000 people.

Since April 2020, the testing staff have been the backbone of a massive operation that has conducted 1.4 million PCR tests.

St Vincents Bondi Covid-19 drive through testing clinic has done 1.4 million tests since April 2020. Picture: Richard Dobson

“They are huge volumes and then the logistics come into play again of having enough supplies, having the police onsite and the traffic controllers managing streams of traffic up towards the bus terminal,” she said of the recent spike in queues. “(There was) the heat, fatigue, we were really needing to make sure all the staff were hydrated.”

Ms McGrath wants her team to stay in PPE for no longer than one hour at a time because they were usually dripping wet by the time they have a drink break.

“I allocate the staff into lanes, make sure everyone has hats and sun block on and then we start working,” she said.

“There are about six or eight swabbers and then the people doing the admin work. We rotate.”

Working in Bondi has been both a blessing and a curse – while Ms McGrath gets to see the beautiful “calming” beach at what she says is “the most beautiful Covid clinic in the world”, she and her team are also battered by exposure to all the elements.

Swab collector Abishek Adhikari, team leader Julie McGrath and registered nurse Simone Wagner are the superstars saving lives on the frontline. Picture: Richard Dobson

“The biggest challenge, for me and the St Vincent’s nurses who are the team leaders of the Covid clinic, is the weather. The bitter cold of the winter and scorching heat of the summer,” she said. “The howling southerlies that blow wind sideways through the tent, it becomes a test of human endurance to be able to keep going in those conditions.”

Ms McGrath said “tempers were frayed” among the public when Queensland’s onerous testing requirements were adding to already stretched queues, but she has witnessed first-hand the generosity of her local community.

“As a nurse, it’s a privilege looking after people who are vulnerable … some of them are very very unwell and it is a difficult time of their life,” she said.

“The community has been amazing. Fishbowl dropping off nutritious salads … Dough Boys Pizza through the long nights of Delta would drop off food. The cafe across the road would supply us our coffee and then all the kids who would drop off cards and drawings to say thank you. When you are in those extreme days, it really keeps us pushing on.”