MILDURA was in complete gridlock as thousands turned out for COVID testing on Monday morning.
With just one main testing site set up at Mildura Recreation Reserve, which is right in the centre of town, traffic was blocked from multiple directions.
Traffic was banked back on Eleventh Street all the way to Benetook Avenue, while on Twelfth Street, the line stretched back to Walnut Avenue, and even snaked into Walnut Avenue.
Deakin Avenue was also gridlocked turning into Twelfth Street, and there were long lines on San Mateo Avenue.
A 10-man Rapid Response Testing Team from Bendigo arrived in Mildura on Sunday night, but struggled to cope with the unprecedented demand, with waiting times expected to be extremely long, before Sunraysia Community Health announced at lunchtime that people were being turned away from the testing site.
The huge turnout comes after a Mildura man in his 30s returned a positive test for the virus on Sunday, and one of his household contacts tested positive on Monday morning.
He had been seated in the same MCG members’ reserve where another man with COVID-19 had been at a match between Carlton and Geelong on July 10.
Sunraysia Daily will continue to provide updates.
