Chaotic scenes at testing centre as essential workers are forced to queue for EIGHT HOURS after they were ordered to undergo a swab every three days just to leave home – as mayor slams the lack of facilities in Sydney’s south-west hotspot
Thousands of Sydney residents have queued for up to eight hours to get a coronavirus test following an order from the New South Wales government.
Residents in the Fairfield local government area in Sydney south-west who outside the region must get tested every three days in a desperate effort to curb the city’s Covid horror outbreak.
There were astonishing scenes at a 24-hour testing centre at Fairfield Showground as the queue of locals stretched for kilometres at 6am Wednesday, sparking traffic chaos.
Some locals slept in their cars as they queued to be tested overnight as residents who live in the area complained about being unable to drive out of their street due to the traffic jam.
Fairfield locals have answered the call to be tested every three days, sparking traffic chaos early Wednesday morning
Fairfield mayor Frank Carbone described the scenes as chaos as he slammed the new rules announced by the NSW government a day earlier.
‘These are people that want to get tested, these are doctors and nurses, people that help our community, they work far and wide and these are essential workers,’ Mr Carbone told the Today show on Wednesday.
‘I think that the plan to get the mandated plan where people need to get tested two times a week, once every three days, was very badly thought out.
‘We need more testing clinics, we need more vaccines. The government needs to listen to news the community. People can’t get out of their cars, people cannot sleep and people cannot get tested, most importantly.’
It’s estimated around 45,000 local residents work outside the LGA.
Mr Carbone has been inundated with complaints from frustrated locals regarding the long queues to be tested.
‘Yesterday, I got complaints from people who were sick who want to get tested, who can’t afford to wait six hours in a queue and have gone home,’ he said.
‘It’s unfortunate that the government has done this. I don’t think they understood the magnitude of it and I don’t think they understood the amount of essential workers we have in Fairfield.’
More to come.