City support establishment of new COVID-19 testing clinic in Wickham

City of Newcastle has worked with the NSW Government and private operator Medtech Services to quickly establish a new testing clinic in Wickham to meet increasing demand from the community seeking rapid COVID-19 testing.

The new testing clinic will open at Passmore Oval (Wickham Park) on Wednesday 11 August and operate from 7.30am to 4.00pm, six days a week.

Newcastle Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said opening an additional testing clinic is a positive step towards addressing adequate COVID-19 testing centres to keep the community in Greater Newcastle safe, but more testing sites are needed.

“Novocastrians should be applauded for taking the current public health orders seriously, and for turning up in droves to be tested for COVID-19, even with the slightest symptoms,” Cr Nelmes said.

“Residents are doing the right thing, then waiting hours to get tested, with reports of people even being turned away due to current testing centres being overwhelmed by demand, which is not acceptable.

“Last week I wrote to the Minister for Health asking for more COVID-19 testing locations, and adequate staffing to conduct the amount of testing being asked of our community.

“Newcastle needs to keep its testing rates high to detect any cases of community transmission. The last thing we need is to deter Novocastrians from coming forward for testing due to long wait times or the fear of being turned away.

“The new Passmore Oval testing clinic in Wickham has the capacity to conduct several thousand tests per day, but we will continue to advocate for more testing sites in Newcastle to meet the increasing demand.

"City of Newcastle have offered the NSW Government access to any of our suitable public facilities to bring more testing sites to Greater Newcastle to keep the community safe.”