Covid testing: Three-hour wait times as thousands queue on the Central Coast

People are experiencing three-hour wait times as thousands have joined queues for Covid testing. It comes despite the fact Covid has not yet been detected in the coast’s sewer system.

Traffic queues have stretched into the kilometres as residents rush to get tested after more than a dozen new exposure sites have been linked to the Central Coast’s latest confirmed case.

Motorists have reported two and a half-hour wait times trying to access the drive through Covid testing clinic at the Mariners Centre of Excellence at Tuggerah, with three-hour delays at the clinic at Wyong RSL.

Wyong Hospital has reportedly stopped drive through testing because of the traffic concerns and is offering walk up testing only.

It comes as fragments of Covid have not been detected in the coast’s sewerage system.

However that could change given the most recent tests on the coast — at the Gosford/Kincumber treatment works and Woy Woy — were last conducted on July 22.

The Wyong/Toukley, Charmhaven and Gwandalan sewerage sites have not been tested since July 20 — two days before the latest Covid case was deemed contagious.

Covid fragments were detected at the Bateau Bay treatment plant on July 6 and 13 but not detected at its most recent test on July 20.

Analysis of NSW Health’s interactive “heat map” for where Covid has been detected paints a grim picture for most of Sydney and a concern for the coast with positive tests creeping north.

Covid has been detected in the sewerage at Hornsby Heights on the past four tests on July 2, 6, 12 and 18.

It has also been detected on the Northern Beaches at the Warriewood and Allambie Heights treatment plants and the North Shore’s Trunks Park treatment plant as recently as Thursday, July 22.

It comes as The Peninsula Chamber of Commerce is calling on the state government to implement a soft border at the Hawkesbury River to limit people movements between Sydney and the Central Coast.

“The Chamber wants restrictions on people movement implemented at the Hawkesbury River as a way forward for lifting the lockdown on the Central Coast and preventing the spread of the Indian COVID-19 Variant northwards,” Chamber president Matthew Wales said.

Covid has not been detected at the Kincumber sewerage treatment plant. Picture: Troy Snook

“We will be asking both the state government and NSW Health to investigate the option to install a soft border control at the Hawkesbury interchange to prevent travel to and from Sydney.

“At the moment, there is no guaranteed way to determine who is coming to the Central Coast to escape the Sydney metro area and potentially put Central Coast residents and regional areas further to the north at risk.

“The Hawkesbury is the ideal location for the NSW Government to install a soft COVID-19 border through the use of VMS (variable message sign) warning signage, social media advertising, pullover checking facilities, registration plate and licence checks and turn around facilities backed by the NSW Police and TfNSW personnel.”

Mr Wales said the soft border would act as a “significant deterrent” to those who think that can sneak around the rules coming from Sydney.

“This would not include delivery trucks and semi-trailers who can still be checked and monitored at the Heavy Vehicle Safety Station at Mt White,” he said.