SOME Sunraysia residents are going shopping after being tested for COVID-19.
“We would tell them ‘you now need to go straight home’, and then we would watch them park and go into (stores),” Sunraysia Community Health Services (SCHS) clinic programs manager Shelley Faulks said.
SCHS have been running a pop-up drive through screening clinic targeting people with symptoms of the virus for the last two weekends.
The testing clinic, behind Target Mildura, finished work on Sunday after a total of 233 people were screened for the virus.
Ms Faulks said she did not want to comment on people going shopping after being tested but did want to reiterate the importance of people staying home if they were unwell.
“If you’re unwell, stay home, get tested and then, once you’ve been tested, self-isolate until your results come back negative,” she said.
SCHS has recently experienced a surge in demand for COVID-19 testing and has responded by increasing its clinic hours.
Clinics have been running at SCHS for several months and testing people with mild to severe symptoms of the virus.
Ms Faulks said the community interest in being tested has been terrific.
“However that has also caused us to have a little bit of a delayed response time with our phones,” she said.
“We’ve increased our capacity as far as extending our clinic hours for testing and increased the number of operators answering our phone line.”
Ms Faulks said it was important to be patient and stay on the line or call SCHS back at another time.
It is unclear whether SCHS will be holding more Mildura drive-through pop-up clinics.
“At this point in time we don’t have any set plans but, depending on community needs, we may hold one in the future” Ms Faulks said.
For more information about COVID-19, or to book an appointment for a test, call SCHS on 5021 7653.
SCHS is running a morning clinic from 9am to noon for people with mild respiratory symptoms and an afternoon clinic from 1pm to 4pm for people with more serious symptoms.
COVID-19 symptoms
– Fever
– Chills or sweats
– Cough
– Sore throat
– Shortness of breath
– Runny nose
– Loss of sense of smell or taste
* In certain circumstances headache, muscle soreness, stuffy nose, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea may also be considered symptoms.
