Howard Salkow

Senior Journalist

Common sense has prevailed and the Port Douglas Covid-19 testing site at the Port Douglas Community Centre will now be operative until January 3, 2022.

But it will be closed on Christmas and Boxing Day and re-open on Monday December 27. A decision has yet to be made whether it will be open on New Year’s day.

The testing site has proven extremely popular and yesterday (Wednesday) patients were subjected to a three-hour wait time.

In what can be described as a work in progress, it was originally open from December 17-20 and then extended to December 24 and now until January 3, 2022.

This news will be welcomed by those arriving in the port over the next few days and mandated to be tested five days after their arrival in Queensland.

Meanwhile, Queensland has recorded 186 new cases of COVID-19, the largest number of daily cases since the start of the pandemic.

Chief Health Officer Dr Gerrard told media now that the virus was becoming widespread, Queensland Health would not be able to investigate every case.

"We've had locations across the state: Cairns, Townsville, Central Queensland, Wide Bay, Sunshine Coast, Darling Downs, West Moreton, Ipswich, Brisbane north and south and the Gold Coast, so it's everywhere," he said.
He said the number of 186 is an underestimate of the real number of people in Queensland who are already carrying this virus.