Alyssa Fritzlaff
Traralgon Recreation Reserve’s COVID testing site has been experiencing increased demand over the last two days.
As the only Latrobe City testing site open on Monday December 27 Traralgon Recreation Reserve spent the day combating the post-Christmas testing demand.
Despite being scheduled to be open until 3:30pm on Monday, due to “major delays”, the Gippsland Region Public Health Unit (GRPHU) announced online that the site had reached full capacity at 11:46am.
GRPHU, reminded those waiting in the queue to “remember to be kind and patient”, on their Facebook page.
People in the queue reported that tensions were running high.
Again, on Tuesday December 28 at 8:34am, the GRPHU announced that the site was experiencing major delays, and by 11am the site had reached full capacity.
Only 4 minutes after opening, there were already 200 people in the queue.
GRPHU reported that much of the testing was due to people needing to be tested in order to travel, and Day 5 tests.
A total of 320 tests were completed on Monday.
The GRPHU reports that they are currently reviewing their staffing model, with intentions to potentially scale up during the week.
The site will be open for the remainder of the year, before closing on January 1 2022, and re-opening on January 2.
Today, the Traralgon Recreation Reserve testing site is scheduled to close at 3:30 pm.
On Wednesday December 29, the following GRPHU testing sites are scheduled to open in Latrobe City:
- Traralgon Recreation Reserve, 8:30am to 3:30pm.
- Dorevitch Drive Through (Latrobe Regional Hospital), by appointment, 8am to 4pm. Call: 5165 0800
- Morwell Respiratory Clinic, by appointment, 9am to 5pm. Call: 5133 9966.
