Covid-19 Cairns: School teacher with virus symptoms forced to walk-in for Covid test
A Cairns schoolteacher with Covid-19 symptoms has told of her anxious wait and difficulty getting tested for the virus after she visited an exposure site.
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AN anxiety-riddled schoolteacher with Covid-19 symptoms has told of being kept on hold for five hours trying to get tested amid fears she may have caught the virus.
North Cairns resident Paula Cockren, 52, eventually hung up on Queensland Health following the “ridiculous” wait as she attempted to book a test appointment in Cairns.
Ms Cockren had visited the Woolworths supermarket at the Raintrees Shopping Centre on July 29, the same venue named as an exposure site for the 60-year-old taxi driver who tested positive to the Delta strain.
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She has since lost her voice, developed a sore throat and a runny nose and is anxiously awaiting the result of a Covid test administered at the QML walk-in clinic on the Esplanade yesterday.
“I just couldn’t believe it. Surely with everything going on I thought it would be a bit quicker and I’d be able to book a test at a drive-in clinic,” she said.
“I didn’t want to be out in the community because if I do have it, obviously I don’t want to give it to someone else.
“But it was the only way I could get tested. It was ridiculous.”
More than 4200 people have been tested in Cairns since the city and Yarrabah was plunged into a three-day-lockdown on Sunday, following two positive infections of a reef pilot and the taxi driver.
There have been no new cases linked as the stay-at-home orders enter its second full day.
The lockdown is scheduled to end at 4pm on Wednesday.
Ms Cockren said she was worried she may have contracted the virus while attending the supermarket.
“I am sniffily, I have a sore throat. I am just really anxious to get my results back,” she said.
A Queensland Health spokesman said the Cairns Hospital and the drive through clinic in Portsmith would open 24 hours from tonight to increase testing access.
“We thank Far North Queenslanders for their patience,” he said.
With people turning up in their thousands to be tested across Cairns, some pathology tests are being sent to Brisbane for processing which may cause a longer turnaround for results.
“Despite the enormous volume of testing being done, the vast majority of results are still being returned within 24-48 hours," the spokesman said.
“Far North Queenslanders have done an incredible job, coming out in droves to get tested.
It comes as chaos erupted at the Aumuller Street clinic when a Cains man was hit trying to stop a car that reportedly pushed in the queue.
Originally published as Covid-19 Cairns: School teacher with virus symptoms forced to walk-in for Covid test
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