Covid 19 Australia: NSW testing centres swamped as Omicron outbreak grows

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has urged residents to only to get a PCR test if they feeling unwell. Photo / Getty Images

New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet said today the state's health system is coping with a difficult "transitional period" to living with Covid-19 after 6062 new cases and one new death was reported.

Testing centres across NSW have been inundated as the Omicron variant fuels thousands of daily infections and between 90,000 and 150,000 people get tested each day.

The surge in demand has left pathologists and NSW Health staff overwhelmed and struggling to process tests, causing days-long wait times for results even after people make it to the end of lengthy queues to get tested.

Perrottet, who was in Wagga to visit the regional city's newly renovated hospital, said he knew people across the state were making an enormous effort lining up for testing.

He reiterated his plea for people only to get PCR tests if they're feeling unwell or if NSW Health has contacted them asking them to do so, claiming there were "still many people in those queues who don't need to be there".

Perrottet and NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard have sought to blame interstate testing requirements and asymptomatic NSW residents for much of the strain on testing resources. But they insist the state's health system – including its hospitals – can cope even if it is under pressure.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has urged residents to only to get a PCR test if they feeling unwell. Photo / Getty Images

Perrottet has previously said any new restrictions or lockdown measures would not be determined by surging case numbers, but by the strain put onto hospitals through Covid patients admitted into wards or intensive care units.

While case numbers have remained relatively steady in recent days, hospitalisations and ICU presentations have increased.

There were 39 patients in intensive care units across NSW on December 21, health department figures show, but just seven days later that number had swelled to 60.

Patients needing a ventilator rose from 11 to 17, while hospitalisations overall jumped from 284 to 557 over the same period.

Testing clinics have been swamped in NSW as the state records thousands of daily cases. Photo / Getty Images

Testing clinics have been inundated for more than a week with hundreds of thousands of people getting tested over the Christmas period.

People are waiting for hours at some clinics while others have had to shut as soon as they open in order to process the lengthy queues already there.

Many people have reported extensive delays waiting for their test results, while two major bungles at a Sydney pathology lab have resulted in hundreds of Covid-19 positive people being out in the community.

SydPath – operated by St Vincent's Hospital – confirmed on Tuesday morning it had sent negative results to 950 additional people, when "about half" of them actually had the virus.