Coronavirus Australia: Where to get tested in each state and territory

Testing for coronavirus is ramping up around the country as Australia continues to flatten its curve. This is what you need to know about testing near you.

As Australia’s coronavirus curve continues its downward trajectory, states and territories are ramping up testing.

Victoria set a new standard on Tuesday by introducing the broadest testing in the nation.

Any Victorian with a fever, shortness of breath, cough or sore throat can now be tested for coronavirus.

There are 40 clinics across the state where testing is already taking place, but GPs are also equipped to carry out tests.

Health Minister Jenny Mikakos described Victoria’s testing regime as the “most generous, widest testing criteria that exists in the nation”.

Testing was previously only available to people who had returned to the state from overseas travel or come into contact with a confirmed case of coronavirus.

“We need to focus now on community transmission and by opening up the testing criteria, we think we’ll be able to gauge the level of infection,” Ms Mikakos said.

“This will also help us to determine how we respond in terms of the restrictions going forward.”

The minister also announced 120 paramedics will be recruited ahead of time so more ambulances can be on the road during the pandemic.

Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said he hoped the broader testing criteria will capture any undetected cases in the community and “drive cases down to zero”.

“There is the potential to walk back the most significant restrictions if we can drive numbers right down,” he said.

If you think you need testing in Victoria, call ahead to your GP or call the Victorian Department of Health Covid-19 hotline on 1800 675 398.

Coronavirus testing is being rolled out across the country. Picture: Guillermo Arias/AFP

South Australia followed suit today, opening up testing to anybody with symptoms — even mild symptoms — including a cough, sore throat, runny nose, fever or shortness of breath.

The state’s chief public health officer Dr Nicola Spurrier on Thursday made the announcement following zero new cases in a 24-hour-period.

“And as the Premier said, we do have all of our testing sites so everybody in South Australia — even if you’re in a regional centre — can come and get the tests done,” Dr Spurrier said.

“And this is reassurance. It’s reassurance for me, as a chief public health officer, but it’s also an ability for yourself, as an individual, to be reassured, and also in terms of looking after your family and your community.

“We’re going to be putting out more media about this. But we’re going to really be encouraging people in South Australia to take this opportunity over the next two weeks.”

Central Adelaide has opened a Commonwealth-funded respiratory clinic — the first of three that will assess, test and diagnose patients.

In total, South Australia has four testing clinics in Adelaide and nine across regional South Australia. Drive-through clinics are also operating.

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A fever clinic has been established in Caloundra on the Sunshine Coast. Picture: John McCutcheon/Sunshine Coast Daily

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters on Thursday she was cautiously optimistic about a low number of new cases because only 1300 people were tested on Wednesday.

That number, she says, has to go up.

“This week we really want to urge everybody to get tested,” she said.

“Yesterday our health officials put out the list of suburbs where we know there is clusters of

community-to-community transmission.

“We’re urging everybody, even if you have the mildest symptom to please come forward in those areas and get tested.

“Last week we peaked on a day at around 4,500 tests in a day. We want to get back up to that number. We’re urging anybody in those high risk categories, anybody who specifically lives in those suburbs that were identified, if you have any symptoms, please come forward and get tested.

The suburbs where residents are urged to get tested if they have even mild symptoms include Waverley, Woollahra and Randwick, Ryde, Penrith, Blacktown, Manly, Dee Why, Liverpool, Westmead, Cumberland and Macquarie Park in Sydney, as well as regional areas including Broken Hill, Nowra, Byron Bay, Port Macquarie and the Manning Valley.

Testing locations in NSW can be found here.

In Queensland, the criteria for testing expanded from those who recently travelled abroad to include those with mild symptoms, those who “work in vulnerable settings such as healthcare, aged or residential care, military, a school or child care, correction facilities, detention centres and boarding schools and those who live in certain areas.

Those areas include parts of Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Cairns and Palm Cove, Mareeba and Gordonvale.

Those who live in a First Nations community are also eligible for the test.

Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young said community transmission has been low and she wants it to stay that way.

More information on where to get tested in Queensland is available here.

Tasmania overnight recorded its highest increase in coronavirus cases since the outbreak began with 15 people diagnosed.

Premier Peter Gutwein on Wednesday announced a “testing blitz” in the region and urged anyone with flu or virus symptoms to contact the public health hotline or a GP.

He also pledged to get to the bottom of the state’s outbreak, which Australia’s chief medical officer had previously linked to a dinner party of medical workers.

Tasmania’s Health Department website urges those who “think you might have COVID-19 because you feel unwell with a fever or cough, sore throat or shortness of breath and have recently travelled internationally or interstate” to get tested.

They can do that at clinics around the country. Information is available via local GPs and the Tasmanian Public Health Hotline on 1800 671 738.

Western Australia’s borders remain closed but other restrictions could be unwound within weeks as the number of new coronavirus cases continues to fall.

Just one local case was recorded overnight, while three foreigners on-board the plagued Artania cruise ship also tested positive.

The four new cases took the state’s total to 527, including 296 people who have recovered and 32 currently in hospital.

Testing criteria in WA applies to those who “presenting with a fever above 38C, (have) a recent history of a fever (e.g. night sweats, chills) or an acute respiratory infection including shortness of breath, cough, sore throat.”

Residents are not required to have travelled interstate or overseas or been in contact with a confirmed case to get a test and people in metropolitan areas can get tested in any of the nine testing clinics while those in regional areas can get tested at a public hospital, health service or remote health clinic.

Testing criteria differs in each state and territory. Picture: Guillermo Arias/AFP

In the Northern Territory, people can be tested if they have returned from interstate or overseas in the past 14 days and develop respiratory illness with or without fever can get tested.

People who have been in close contact with a confirmed COVID-19 case in the past 14 days and develop respiratory illness with or without fever can also get tested.

So too can people who have severe community-acquired pneumonia and there is no clear cause can seek testing as well as healthcare workers who directly work with patients, and frontline workers, including police, emergency workers, educators, retail pharmacists and disability workers, who display respiratory illness or fever can get tested.

More information on testing in the NT can be found here.

In the ACT, the same testing criteria applies. People living in a high-risk setting such as aged care, the military or correctional facilities and have symptoms of COVID-19 have also been urgently to get tested.