Dozens of people were lining up to receive a COVID-19 test at the Murray Street clinic in Wagga today, nearly two hours after it was due to close.
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The COVID testing clinic, run by the Murrumbidgee Local Health District, was open from 9am to 12pm on Christmas and Boxing Day. On Sunday, people were still lining up down the street at around 1.30pm.
Staff on site were only accepting those with COVID-19 symptoms and close contacts to people with the virus, due to the huge demand for testing.
Increased socialising for Christmas and the holiday season is leading to a greater demand for testing, as is the requirement for people to return a negative PCR test in order to travel interstate to destinations such as Queensland.
A new record daily count for COVID cases was again recorded in NSW on Sunday with 6394 new infections. The rapidly-increasing outbreak has swamped contact tracers and overwhelmed testing sites across the state throughout the past week.
Health minister Brad Hazzard today urged states requiring PCR tests for travel to reconsider the policy.
"It will take the pressure off our health system ... take the heat off the pathology capacity allowing pathology to be used what it should be for," he said.
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Mr Hazzard also warned that cases of the Omicron variant will continue to increase.
"Everyone in NSW is probably going to get Omicron at some stage. Everybody in Australia will get Omicron," he said, citing vaccination as the best way to address this.
"Early evidence both internationally and here ... is indicating that it's nowhere near as severe, so on that basis we're looking at how we reconfigure our approach."
The local demand for testing comes as NSW Health reported 51 new cases of the virus across the MLHD on Sunday.
For further testing locations across the district go to www.mlhd.health.nsw.gov.au, or for help accessing a test call the Murrumbidgee COVID-19 Hotline 1800 831 099.
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