People queue over four hours for pop-up testing clinic in south-west Sydney
NSW Labor leader Jodi McKay has called for COVID-19 testing to be expanded in south-west Sydney as hundreds of cars lined up for over four hours at the Crossroads Hotel pop-up clinic on Monday.
The NSW government has asked any person who went to the pub in Casula last week to get tested for COVID-19, after the hotel cluster ballooned to 13 cases when eight new diagnoses were reported on Monday.
The head of the queue before it reaches the car park.Credit:James Brickwood
The pop-up clinic was established in the pub's car park on Friday evening after two people, who visited the venue on July 3, tested positive for COVID-19. Queues of more than a kilometre were reported over the weekend.
Cars snaked around the block for about a kilometre at midday on Monday, creating a stationary lane of traffic on a stretch of the Hume Highway that curved off the main road, past Bunnings and KFC, and back around to the car park entrance off Campbelltown Road.
Moey Kerrigan, who went to the hotel last Tuesday, had been in line for four hours at 1pm and was still more than 20 cars away from the front.
He and three friends, who were getting tested because they had been in proximity, said the line "was much longer than expected". But they persevered because they needed the test results to go back to work.
Moey Kerrigan and three of his friends had been waiting more than four hours for a test. Mr Kerrigan went to the Crossroads Hotel last week, and his friends are getting tested out of precaution.Credit:James Brickwood
Other people arrived and parked nearby, hoping to be tested in person, but promptly left upon learning the queue was over three hours long in the morning.
Ms McKay arrived at the car park at midday and called for a "massive expansion of testing" in response to the waiting times that thousands of people were facing.
"They're doing the right thing, however they're waiting four to five hours just to get a COVID-19 test," Ms McKay said. "It just seems extraordinary to me [since] they asked thousands of people to get a test."
NSW Labor leader Jodi McKay addresses reporters from the car park.Credit:James Brickwood
Extended hours of testing had been made available at Liverpool, Campbelltown and Fairfield hospitals, but Ms McKay said locations needed to be more convenient.
She said she had seen a number of cars leave the queue as people had work commitments, ran out of petrol, or didn't allow enough time because they thought it would be a quicker process.
COVID-19 testing at the Crossroads Hotel in Casula, where a coronavirus cluster has emerged.Credit:James Brickwood
"It needs to be as easy as possible ... I cannot understand why we have just one pop-up clinic here in this area," she said.
But a factory worker, who asked not to be named but attended the Picton Hotel on July 4, said people who were concerned would get tested regardless of the line and had no choice if they wanted to return to work.
He was sent home to self-isolate from his Ingleburn work site after learning someone who had gone to the Picton Hotel had tested positive.
The man and two friends, who included a Picton Hotel security guard, had packed lunch in preparation for the four-hour line-up.
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