Due to extremely high demand across the Christmas period, ACT Health will prioritise COVID testing in Canberra today, Monday 27 December, for people with the highest public health need at the Garran and Mitchell testing centres.
Between 11am and 3pm, Garran and Mitchell will only test close contacts, people who have symptoms of COVID-19 or returned international travellers.
People who need a test for other reasons can attend the Kambah testing centre during opening hours, or Mitchell or Garran before 11am and after 3pm.
Testing people with the highest risk of exposure, and symptoms, is the priority to protect the ACT community.
As of 9.30am this morning, Kambah, Mitchell and Garran are all at capacity with ACT Health asking people not to queue across the roads. Click here for hourly updates on wait times.
In the context of current testing pressures, for fully vaccinated close contacts who require a test to exit quarantine, a negative test result from a test collected on or after day 5 will be considered sufficient to exit quarantine after day 7 provided they are symptom-free. If they are notified they are a close contact on day 4 after their exposure, and are fully vaccinated and symptom-free, they may wish to delay their initial test to day 5 or later.
Unfortunately the high demand caused by pre-travel testing requirements from other jurisdictions, has caused long waits at testing centres over recent days. Sites have reached capacity several times in the past week with wait times of over four hours being reported.
Wait times at the outdoor testing centres have also been impacted by occasional weather delays.
People aged five and over who require testing, and are not close contacts, symptomatic or returned international travellers, can still present for testing at the Kambah drive-through, which is open from 8am to 4pm, or at the Mitchell drive-through (8am-11am and 3pm-10pm) and the Garran COVID-19 Surge Centre (7.30am-11am and 3pm-9pm). The Nicholls testing site will be closed from 25 December to 3 January.
While extended waiting periods can be frustrating, ACT Health asks that people waiting to be tested show kindness and respect towards the hard-working testing staff during this difficult period.
Those who are working across the holiday period do not deserve to be abused as they provide a necessary service for the benefit of the ACT community.
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