THE "mega" drive-through screening clinic designed to capture any lingering cases of COVID-19 in the community is open for business.
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From today until May 17, McDonald Jones Stadium will be home to the six-lane drive-through clinic with a capacity to swab up to 900 people a day.
"Our goal is to test as many people as possible so we can accurately assess the risk of COVID-19 in the region," Hunter New England public health physician, Dr David Durrheim, said. "We don't expect to find a lot of cases - in fact we hope to find very few - but testing is the only way to make sure."
Dr Paul Craven, the medical controller for Hunter New England's response to COVID-19, said despite cases remaining stable at 276 in the district, further testing would offer reassurance to the population as restrictions eased.
"A group of leaders in the health service came together and we decided we'd like to do a mega drive-through," Dr Craven said. "Because while we have had on-site testing stations for a while at the John Hunter, Belmont, Mater and Maitland hospitals - a lot of people still don't want to come to a hospital. We have noticed some of the most popular testing models have been the drive-through models.
"We contacted the stadium, and they were very happy to work with us on that."
Dr Craven said they were expecting between 600 and 900 people a day, bearing in mind there had already been more than 30,000 tests throughout the region.
Bookings were required prior to attending, and could be made by calling 4964 7497.
"They will need to take some details and make sure someone is not so unwell that they would need hospital care," he said.
"They will then offer them an appointment and tell them exactly where to go, what time to come, and what to bring with them."
Staff would guide traffic into the stadium grounds, and direct people to one of six lanes.
"When you ring up and make your appointment you will be told which lane to drive to," he said. "We take some brief details there, and we give you an information pack about what you should do about isolating if you are unwell. If people register their details, they'll get an SMS fairly quickly with the results of their test.
"We still say it's about 72 hours, but they have been coming back a bit quicker."
All testing would be done at the John Hunter Hospital.
"We are really just trying to see how much COVID-19 there is in the community to reassure our population, and show them they have done a good job," he said. "We have had a great response.
"Now we're all waiting to see what happens in the next couple of weeks."
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