Long queues and closed clinics: Australians with positive rapid antigen tests abandon PCRs

People testing positive to Covid using rapid antigen tests are being turned away from, or are giving up on, getting a PCR test, as the New South Wales government warns that the actual number of Covid cases could be much higher than the 11,201 reported on Wednesday.

Wait times for testing clinics have ballooned across NSW, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia.

Guardian Australia has spoken to people who have developed Covid symptoms after being in contact with a confirmed positive case, or who have a positive rapid antigen test, who have been trying for several days to get a PCR test but have been turned away.

Others were tested before Christmas but are still waiting on their result.

Long queues result in wait times of several hours. Some people had been turned away half an hour after a testing site opened because it was over capacity. At others people camped out overnight to ensure they were at the top of the queue.

Amy McNeilage and her mother both tested positive on a rapid antigen test earlier this week and were finally able to get a PCR test on Wednesday, after driving an hour from north-west Sydney to Lithgow.

The website later marked it as closed. McNeilage and her partner need official confirmation from a PCR test in order to return to their home in Canberra, and to show their employers why they need time off work. They will quarantine in Sydney until cleared to travel.

NSW Health sent texts to people who completed a PCR on Wednesday warning that the wait for results would be 72 hours.

Some, like Michael Banford, returned a positive rapid antigen test, looked at the queues for PCR tests, and decided not to get tested at all.

The NSW chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, said that people who are just seeking a screening test should use a rapid antigen test not a PCR test, but that people who test positive on a rapid antigen test, or who have symptoms, should still get a PCR test.

The testing queues are slightly shorter in Victoria, with the average result time hovering around two days.

Laura Strehlau has taken her family for five PCR tests since 17 December, when her eight-year-old son was identified as a close contact. He tested positive, followed by her six-year-old, and then, yesterday, her four-year-old. So far, Strehlau herself has not tested positive.