Hours to be reduced at Bathurst's drive-through testing clinic

The Western NSW Local Health District (WNSWLHD) has been advising the community that the clinic will be open for two hours less per day on weekdays, starting from Monday, March 7.

It will continue to open at 8am, but will close earlier at 2pm.

On weekends, the hours will be reduced further, with the clinic to be open from 10am to 2pm on Saturdays and Sundays.

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A spokesperson for the WNSWLHD said the changes were the result of a drop in demand for PCR testing.

"Changes have been made to the hours of operation at the drive-through COVID-19 testing clinic at Bathurst due to reducing demand for PCR tests as the use of Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) has increased in the community and supply chains have stabilised," they said.

"At its height, the Bathurst testing clinic was regularly taking upward of 900 swabs per day but recently that demand has dropped to an average of around 200 swabs per day."

They said the changes won't affect turnaround times for test results.

Testing is still available at Bathurst Hospital's heritage building and via appointment at Ochre Health.

Should demand for PCR testing change, the drive-through clinic's hours of operation can be increased.

"WNSWLHD remains equipped to increase the clinic's capacity at short notice, should demand dramatically increase or Public Health advice change," the spokesperson said.

While NSW Health is no longer providing a local government area breakdown of COVID case numbers, figures for health districts are available.

In the 24 hours to 4pm Wednesday, there were a total of 408 new COVID cases recorded in the WNSWLHD, identified through 109 PCR tests and 299 RATs.

The health district's case numbers have remained somewhat steady over the last week, with the daily figure usually in the mid to high 300s.

Across NSW, however, case numbers appear to be rising, with the number in excess of 10,000 in the last two reporting periods, up from 8874 prior to that.

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