STRANDED truck drivers will now be assisted with COVID-19 testing as a new, temporary, pop-up testing tent has been established at Wimmera Health Care Group.
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Drivers can undergo tests separately from the public in the new area, situated in the car park off Read Street and directly in front of the current COVID-19 testing clinic.
Trailer-less trucks filed along Read and Baillie streets on Monday and Tuesday as interstate truck drivers headed to Horsham to receive a COVID-19 test.
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The testing scramble comes as South Australian health authorities passed a cross-border travel direction requiring all essential travellers from Victoria, New South Wales and ACT to produce evidence of a COVID-19 test within 72 hours of their arrival in South Australia.
WHCG COVID Testing Clinic manager Bernie Taylor said the tent was a temporary fix and would have its own testing team, separate from the clinic.
"The truck drivers will have a walkway marked out to separate them from symptomatic community members," Ms Taylor said.
"We are hoping it will only be for a day or so until a roadside testing service can be provided at Nhill.
"That would be much more convenient for the truck drivers and it would free up the parking issue we have at the moment."
Truck drivers can visit the tent for testing any time between 7.30am-12.30pm this week.
Symptomatic community members will continue to get tested during the usual time between 9am and 12 noon.
Lowan member Emma Kealy said the truck buildup highlights a lack of testing sites between Horsham and the South Australian border.
"There is no COVID testing site on the Western Highway between Horsham and the South Australian border," she said.
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"So if you live in Kaniva, it could be a 200km round trip to get a test. One of the options, of course, is Horsham, which brings you out of the cross-border zone, which means you lose your cross-border status.
"So it is enormous for our freight industry and considering there is no parking available in that area we really need to see a better option put up by the Victorian government."
Ms Kealy said she has written to Victoria's health minister to urgently implement a testing site closer to the border to ease congestion in Horsham.
She said the government had been considering opening a COVID-19 testing facility at the Nhill truck stop.
"I think it should also incorporate that vaccination as well because as we know truckies are on the road six days a week, that one day they are not on the road they are with their families, and often it is hard to coordinate a vaccination appointment with that downtime," she said.
"We need to make it easier for our truckies to get vaccinated, those that want to get vaccinated. I am calling for a one-stop-shop to be set up somewhere between Horsham and the border, preferably as close to the border as possible, so they can get their COVID tests done as required by whatever the rules are on the day.
"I think they are both entirely relevant because we need to support our freight industry because, without them, Australia stops."
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