Covid NSW: Vicious cycle of virus testing and isolation the new norm

Reporter Madeline Crittenden waited more than 110 hours to receive a negative Covid test. Now she’s deemed a close contact and is back into isolation again. Welcome to the new Covid normal.

Two lines on a rapid antigen test. It was three days before Christmas and I was immediately worried and stressed. I didn’t feel sick. Could it have been a false positive? Or was I asymptomatic? The positive line was very faint, was I just seeing things?

In my haste, I immediately followed up with a second rapid test. This time it was negative.

I needed to get to a testing clinic.

I’d been out with a friend a few nights earlier, she sent me a text telling me she’d tested positive and told me I should probably get a test too.

As I drove around my Sydney suburbs looking for a testing clinic, I convinced myself it was just a false positive, but knew I needed a test.

Saturday and Sunday Telegraph reporter Madeline Crittenden shares her experience with Covid testing.

It was just 72 hours before Christmas, and with thousands needing “tourism tests” to see their friends and family in Queensland, testing clinics were swamped.

I drove around several Sydney suburbs, with lines either cut-off or stretching for hundreds of metres. Traffic controllers looked stressed, people in their cars were frustrated, drivers were trying to push in front of other cars at roundabouts and intersections.

It was like the last-minute Christmas Eve rush at the fish markets or shopping centres, but in 2021 fashion, the last minute scramble was instead taking place in Covid testing lines, as people hurriedly tried to get their hands on a very popular last minute present – a negative Covid result.

In a bid to avoid the lengthy queues, I drove to Western Sydney, where I was pleasantly surprised to find a private drive-through clinic that only had a short queue, perhaps 20 cars in front of me.

As I waited 15 minutes to reach the head of the testing line, I was handed a pamphlet that stated negative results would be received the “same day”.

While I didn’t believe that could be possible with the huge backlog, I did expect to receive a negative result by Christmas lunch.

As I waited at home, 24, then 48, then 72 hours passed without a result. If I had been positive, by the time I received my result I would have been in isolation for five days.

There have been massive queues at Covid testing clinics around NSW. Picture: John Grainger

I tried several times to get in contact with the private clinic who took my sample, fearing it had been lost, however, phone calls were sent to an automatic voicemail, and emails went unanswered.

I was frustrated and upset, plans were thrown into disarray as we sat waiting, because there wasn’t much more to do.

I waited more than 110 hours to receive my negative test. My husband, who was tested with me five days earlier, received his result after three days, while a friend tested at a NSW Health clinic on Christmas Eve had her result by Christmas morning.

It was more than clear the workload was enormous, and with private clinics reducing staff numbers over the holiday period, there weren’t enough hands on deck to process all the samples.

Madeline Crittenden isolates at home after being deemed a close contact of a positive Covid case.

It had been ingrained in us for more than a year to get tested if we had come in contact with someone who had Covid, if we felt unwell or had the slightest of symptoms. And suddenly we were told not to do that, only if we were close contacts or unwell.

The whole way we had been programmed in this state had changed — now we need to live with the virus. But the anxiety around coming into contact with a positive case, or wanting an all clear before seeing an elderly grandparent is hard to shift. While we need to live with the virus, a lot of us still don’t want to catch it.

And as if to lead by example Prime Minister Scott Morrison introduced new rules around testing and isolating, a new way of “living with the virus”.

These new rules will hopefully mean less queues, less workload for staff who are trapped under a never-ending workload, and less waiting and isolation for people who come into contact with Covid.

Perhaps all we need now is a steady supply of antigen tests, so we can all take part in this new world of cohabitation with Covid-19.

And lucky for me I had a couple of spares tests. Just one day after receiving my negative test I was deemed a close contact following another interaction with a covid-positive person. I had to get tested and am isolating once more. The waiting game begins again.

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