Covid testing chaos continues amid giant case spike
Hundreds of thousands of Australians are again embroiled in Covid testing chaos with dozens of centres closed after reaching capacity.
Testing chaos is continuing for hundreds of thousands of Australians hoping to return a negative Covid result by Christmas.
In New South Wales, the country’s new virus epicentre where daily cases spiked to 5715 cases in the past 24 hours, locals were forced to wait hours while 160,000 tests were taken on Wednesday.
Dr Greg Granger, who’s working at a testing site in the city’s eastern suburbs, said there is an “degree of desperation” as Covid cases reach devastating new highs.
“It feels like we’re back to square one,” he told the Today Show on Thursday.
“This area of Sydney has a high number of exposure sites so the testing numbers are high but this pattern has been trending all through Sydney and all through regional and rural Australia as well.”
The frontline worker also said Omicron was a “wildcard” that experts “couldn’t have expected”.
“We had clues with Delta as it was spreading overseas but Omicron hit the whole world so quickly and so fast, we’re had to scramble quickly. This is why we’re seeing the lines,” he said.
In Melbourne, where statewide cases spiked to 2005 on Wednesday, more than a dozen testing sites shut by 9.45am after already reaching capacity.
These included the Alfred, Peninsula Health in Frankston and Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital.
Inner city options including St Vincents and Albert Park both have wait times of three hours.
Queensland is continuing to battle its hardest pandemic hurdle yet, recording a record 396 cases on Thursday.
The state also hosts 123 active Omicron cases.
The testing wait time at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane is more than three hours long while those waiting at 4 Cyte Pathology Chermside can expect to be there for more than two.
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