Kylie Gillies blasts “ridiculous” COVID testing queues in NSW and shares a message of support for healthcare workers

Kylie Gillies has aired her outrage at the length of COVID testing queues in New South Wales.

The Morning Show host took to Instagram to document how long her niece had to wait in line to be tested on Boxing Day.

“My niece needs a negative test to return to Queensland,” Kylie shared on her Instagram stories to her 139,000 followers.

Kylie explained that her niece had arrived at the testing clinic at 7:30am, and 1.5 hours later she was still “nowhere close” to the front of the line.

“This is a ridiculous situation. The Poor health workers,” she wrote.

After two hours in line, Kylie’s niece was eventually tested.

“Huge thanks to health workers having to work on Boxing Day. Now the wait begins,” Kylie wrote.

Kylie later shared videos of her family, including her niece, enjoying a boat day around Sydney Harbour.

Due to high demand over the Christmas/ New Year period, testing labs are under unprecedented pressure, with an average of about 145,000 swabs being collected a day over the past week.

COVID testing sites’ queues have stretched hundreds of metres in recent weeks, with wait times up to six hours in some areas.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said “tourist tests” are to blame for putting pressure on the state’s healthcare system.

“Tourism tests are putting substantial pressure on the system,” the premier said on Boxing Day.

“That’s just not long queues, it’s slowing down the turnaround time for NSW Health to be able to process those tests and get that information back to people who may be unwell or have COVID.”