Covid testing site near me: Box Hill, Landale Street testing site traffic chaos

Panicked Melburnians queuing to find out if they have Covid are causing chaos in Box Hill with residents blocked in their own driveways.

Landale St is clogged up with people waiting to get Covid tested. Picture: Rob Leeson.

Panicked Melburnians from the eastern suburbs flocking to a Box Hill Covid testing site have residents at their wits end.

After 16 months of traffic blocking driveways to huge queues of cars clogging up once quiet residential streets, the community and local authorities are pleading with the State Government to urgently move the Landale St site.

Whitehorse Council will write to Health Minister Martin Foley asking him to shift the testing site to a more appropriate location, with Silver Grove Nunawading suggested as a better spot.

Cr Tina Liu said residents and the wider community continued to be significantly impacted by long queues and traffic congestion generated by the site, with accessibility and safety key concerns.

“The issue has become progressively worse,” she said.

Cr Liu said with Covid seemingly not easing any time soon, it was crucial to find a more suitable and sustainable testing site that was not among residential streets.

A car blocking a driveway.

People waiting to get Covid tested in Box Hill. Picture: Rob Leeson.

Cr Denise Massoud said there were a lot of challenges with Covid testing across Whitehorse, including the site at Box Hill Hospital.

She said Landale St could not manage large amounts of traffic and supported the Silver Grove site as an alternative.

But Cr Blair Barker said while he felt for the people living in Landale St, he believed the council was involving itself in a state health matter, which wasn’t its role.

“We need more testing, not less,” he said.

But Cr Liu said the council wasn’t looking to intervene in what the Department of Health was doing around testing.

“It is pivotal for people to get tested but we need to look at the appropriateness of the location,” she said.

A Department of Health spokesperson said: “We are constantly reviewing our testing locations and considering alternatives to accommodate changes in testing demand and thank the community for their continued efforts to protect all Victorians.”