The Department of Health has reached a major milestone in the fight against COVID-19, with more than a million tests carried out in the State since January.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the people of NSW should be proud of the achievement and thanked the community for doing their part to keep NSW “COVID-safe”.
“NSW has one of the highest COVID-19 testing rates in the world and reaching one million tests already is an incredible result,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“I want to thank everyone in NSW who has come forward and been tested,” she said.
“This needs to continue – if you have the mildest of symptoms it is so important you come forward and get tested.”
Ms Berejiklian said people who had been tested and received a negative result would need to be retested if they developed symptoms again.
Minister for Health, Brad Hazzard said high testing numbers were critical to finding new cases and controlling the spread of the virus.
“NSW Health Pathology have been the quiet achievers during the pandemic, working incredibly hard behind the scenes, doing almost 60 per cent of these tests, averaging 7,500 a day,” Mr Hazzard said.
“They’ve also received around 290,000 registrations for their pioneering SMS Results Service that has halved the average waiting time for negative results,” he said.
Mr Hazzard warned that the virus was likely circulating among people in the community with mild symptoms and the risk of outbreaks and a resurgence of cases remained.
