Experts say ramping up testing sites critical amid Covid fears

Victorians with Covid symptoms are being warned to urgently get tested after it was revealed many are waiting days as frustration grows over massive testing site queues.

One in four Victorians who contracted Covid last week waited more than two days to get tested after noticing symptoms, prompting urgent warnings for people to get checked as soon as they feel ill.

But amid growing frustration about queues at testing sites, the Herald Sun can also reveal it took more than 24 hours for the Health Department to be notified of 33 per cent of positive test results last week.

This was the highest proportion of positive cases not identified within a day – the agreed national benchmark – of any state or territory except the Northern Territory in the past six weeks.

A Health Department spokesman said most test ­results were returned within 24 hours, although it is understood there were some delays when further tests were needed to confirm positive ­results.

Huge queues formed at a Bourke St Covid testing site on Monday. Picture: David Crosling

“Following Friday’s record 88,000 tests, more than 96 per cent of results were turned around by the next day,” the spokesman said.

Three new Covid testing ­facilities were set up over the weekend but lengthy delays continued Monday morning.

Huge queues surrounded the Bourke St walk-in clinic in Melbourne’s CBD with people waiting about three hours by 9am. Similar wait times were experienced at testing sites in Ferntree Gully, Cranbourne East and Parkville.

Deakin University chair in epidemiology Catherine Bennett said the system was facing a “terrible double whammy” before Christmas as travellers needing tests to go interstate added to demand.

She said it was critical the testing system was expanded so potentially Covid-positive Victorians were not turned away, and to avoid “putting more demands on an already beleaguered workforce”.

“They need to pump in more resources so it’s ramping up, not ramping down, over Christmas,” Professor Bennett said.

People are being urged to get tested immediately as the Omicron variant has a shorter infectious period. Picture: David Crosling

The Health Department spokesman said: “With a significant increase in testing ­capacity and investments in laboratory capacity, Victoria has been able to maintain fast turnaround times amid unprecedented demand.”

Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation state secretary Lisa Fitzpatrick urged people to get their booster vaccine shots as soon as they were eligible to limit the impact on the health system’s “very, very tired workforce”.

“You can’t keep going back to the well because the well is drying up,” she said.

State Covid commander Jeroen Weimar has praised Victorians for strong recent testing numbers. Picture: David Caird

Health authorities and experts also said it was crucial for anyone with symptoms to get tested immediately as the proportion of Covid-positive Victorians getting checked within two days of noticing symptoms fell to the lowest level since the start of November.

Professor Bennett said this was particularly important given the Omicron variant had a shorter infectious period.

“It’s about identifying your infection risk so that you can manage that going forward, by isolating and not putting friends and family at risk … but also looking back to see who might have been exposed so that they know,” she said.