Victoria coronavirus testing centre overwhelmed, closes after 20 minutes

Coronavirus testing centres in Melbourne have been overwhelmed with huge queues yet again, forcing one centre to shut before 9am.

Several Melbourne coronavirus testing community centres have been overwhelmed with queues, prompting them to shut before 9am.

A testing centre in Chadstone, near Melbourne’s city centre, shut just 20 minutes after it opened.

This is despite the Victorian government’s promise of testing sites remaining open until 7pm, every day of this week.

Huge traffic queues formed yesterday following the surge in cases and locals are getting frustrated.

That would’ve pissed a few people off! The line was crazy!

— Harry Foxx (@HarryFoxx) June 23, 2020

A caller named Adam told 3AW radio this morning that the drive-through testing clinic at the Chadstone Shopping Centre had closed at 8.20am.

“I got here at about 7.45am and lined up with everyone else and by about 8.20am they’ve got the signs up saying it’s closed already,” he said.

“There was a massive queue, people coming from everywhere,” Adam added.

Pictures from the weekend show similar queues at Melbourne testing centres, where cars were at a standstill as motorists waited for a swab.

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Chadstone Shopping Centre did not stay open for long.

Frustrated Chadstone residents were moved on after their local testing centre was forced to shut down because of queues.

Authorities are blaming the centre’s closure on traffic.

“My understanding is that it’s a traffic issue,” said Victoria’s chief health officer, Professor Sutton. “As soon as police can manage that traffic flow, they (Chadstone) will be available for testing again.”

Two other Melbourne locations — the Dandenong drive-through testing centre and the Keilor Community Hub testing facility on the Calder Highway — also closed before 9am.

Chadstone and Northland drive-through testing sites will be open from 8am – 7pm from Tuesday 23 June through to Sunday 28 June. If you're experiencing #coronavirus #COVID19 symptoms, get tested.

For more testing sites and their opening times, visit https://t.co/f7zpNgHTwi pic.twitter.com/WefTx0yXJL

— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) June 22, 2020

Professor Sutton assured viewers in a live press conference this morning that the state could test 20,000 people a day.

“The testing capacity is there,” he said.

However, he acknowledged that Victoria’s spike in coronavirus cases had caused more people than expected to seek testing, especially in some areas.

There’s been a “real surge on testing,” according to Professor Sutton.

“That‘s put a lot of pressure on the testing sites.

“All the materials, all the reagents, all the test kits are available up to those numbers. But the focus on where people go for testing has obviously gone to some really focused areas for convenience.”

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It’s the second day in a row of these centres being unable to handle the unprecedented demand.

Authorities were working fast to get new drive-through testing facilities off the ground, including ones at Footscray Bunnings and the Keilor Showgrounds.

“We have worked with planning to get as many new testing sites up in those areas as possible,” Prof. Sutton said.

“That includes from today the showgrounds which will be open from 1pm today for the Keilor Downs Secondary College students and families and from tomorrow, that site will be open to the general community.

“Footscray Bunnings also has a pop-up drive through testing clinic and there‘s a newly-established pop-up sign at Burn centre that will be open seven days a week.

“We know that the demand on testing has increased significantly.”

Brett Sutton the Chief Health Officer of Victoria speaks to the media. Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Getting the results to these tests also might take longer than normal due to increased demand.

“With the thousands of tests done over the last couple of days, some of those results might take longer,” Prof. Sutton said.

However, he still encouraged people to come forward for testing.

“The message hasn‘t changed for in my opinion. … We want people to test all of the time, not just when there’s some anxiety about, you know, where case numbers are going.”