AS marquees were slowly pulled down and the authority of concrete road barriers lose their power, a COVID-19 testing clinic was permanently closed for the good.

The Kambah site has been the first of the territory’s several clinics to pack up and entirely dissipate after initially being temporarily established almost 11 months ago.

The last cars drove through for a cautious jab shortly before its 5pm closure on Wednesday (May 12) with little fuss.

Figures from ACT Health have proven that the temporary testing clinic in the Tuggeranong suburb has been the least visited of six drive-through sites scattered throughout Canberra.

Just under 20,000 people have been tested in Kambah from the more than 200,000 across the ACT while the average of close to 500 per week at the clinic is below the number in the territory over any given 24-hour period.

The government’s response to the pandemic is “constantly being reviewed, updated and adapted to the changing COVID-19 situation” to close Kambah down.

“We are consolidating our testing operations at the EPIC drive through and Weston Creek walk-in centre to deliver an appropriate level of baseline testing to the community on an ongoing basis,” an ACT Health spokesperson, “while also having the flexibility to quickly up-scale testing capacity, so people can get tested safely when they need to.”

ACT Health has contingencies in place to expand our other testing sites at short notice and the ability to deploy additional pop-up testing facilities in areas of need.

Kambah had also been considered the “most exposed” site to the elements and the first to be closed amid numbers of cases in the ACT dropping off since last year.

“The operations have been weather dependent, with closures required during very wet, cold or hot weather,” the spokesperson said.

“As winter approaches, the remaining testing sites will be more comfortable for staff and consumers.”

The Canberra community can get tested at the following non-ACT government sites:

• Winnunga Nimmityjah Respiratory Clinic
• Capital Pathology collection centres
• Laverty Pathology
• YourGP@Crace
• Lakeview Medical Practice Tuggeranong

“Testing remains our best surveillance of the current COVID-19 situation in the territory, and we need to keep getting tested if experiencing even the mildest of COVID-like symptoms,” the spokesperson said.