Deputy Premier acknowledges 72 hour wait time for COVID tests in regions

In Wagga, some residents are waiting up to 72 hours - and longer - to receive their test results.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said that while she is grateful to see huge numbers of people come forward for testing across the state, the downside of this is that it leads to increasing delays.

"We're trying to reduce that as much as possible and work more closely with pathology partners just to make that happen," she said.

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In the four weeks to August 16, the Murrumbidgee Local Health District (MLHD) recorded just over 28,000 COVID-19 tests across the region.

Of these, 8694 were conducted in the Wagga City Council local government area.

The MLHD is ranked 12 out of the 15 health districts across the state in terms of testing rates.

It is closely followed by the Mid North Coast, Far West, and Southern NSW.

In many cases, people across the Riverina are having to drive from their community to Wagga to get COVID-19 tested.

A Tarcutta man, who did not wish to be named, said that residents in Tarcutta and Gillenbah are not able to be tested at the local clinic, as it only serves truck drivers.

"It'd be on and off (traffic-wise), but there'd be an awful lot of time where the locals could go down when they need to instead of going into Wagga, which is a 40-minute drive," he said.

"Some of the older people might not want to go to town."

The last time the man was tested for COVID-19 was during the previous outbreak last year, when there was a pop-up testing clinic established in Tarcutta for one day.

He said it "wouldn't hurt" to see something like this happen again, but wonders why the community couldn't take advantage of the testing tents that are already set up for truck drivers.

Meanwhile, Deputy Premier John Barilaro said that the government's crisis cabinet would begin discussions tomorrow about a possible extension to the statewide lockdown first brought into effect on Saturday evening.

On Monday, he suggested that the seven-day lockdown may be increased to 14 days because of the incubation period of the virus.

He also said that idea of bringing certain areas out of lockdown LGA by LGA is "something that we can consider".

"Right now, because we've got a big footprint where we've got concerns either by cases or sewage detection or the surveillance around mobility, I still think if we have more LGAs that are affected, we probably would look at a continuing a statewide lockdown," Mr Barilaro said.

Ms Berejiklian said that the best protection for regional communities currently is the statewide lockdown, reducing mobility and increasing vaccination rates.

"Even if you don't have a case in your community, we're in the phase now [of] making sure that stays the case and having an overly precautionary approach to reduce mobility, to reduce spread," she said.

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